Until its rhythm you have found

I’m not feeling too much like blogging at the moment, so I’m going to take a few days off. Could be the heat; it’s pretty hot in Buffalo right now. Could be something else.

For now, I’ll leave you with a song that’s been haunting me for several weeks now. It’s “Scythe Song”, by Scots great Dougie Maclean. It can be heard here here, the song starts up at about the 1:40 mark. (Don’t worry about the sound at the outset; it clears up before the music starts and for YouTube sound, it’s fine. And don’t worry about watching the video. It’s just an unchanging title card.)

The song is a meditation on the kind of learning that takes place when you undertake a craft that may look simple, but whose mastery eludes everyone but those who work at it alongside a giving teacher. The idea, I think, is that learning is as much a function of someone teaching us as finding the secrets on our own.

The lyrics:

O I still remember when
I first watched him work the blade.
‘Twas down in the Buckney den
my questions tumbled and he said:
“O this is not a thing to learn inside a day!
Stand closely by me and I’ll try to show the way.

You’ve got to hold it right,
feel the distance to the ground.
Move with a touch so light,
until its rhythm you have found.
Then you’ll know what I know.

O wild are the ways we run
when at last untethered out we fly!
Straight into the burning sun;
need no direction, no, not I!
But it is not a thing to learn inside a day….
Stand closely by me and I’ll try to show the way.

You’ve got to hold it right,
feel the distance to the ground.
Move with a touch so light,
until its rhythm you have found.
Then you’ll know what I know.

And so, little dancing girl,
you want to learn to play a tune?
One that your heart can fill
to help you shine under the moon?
Well it is not a thing to learn inside a day!
Stand closely by me and I’ll try to show the way.

You’ve got to hold it right,
feel the distance to the sound….
Move with a touch so light,
until its rhythm you have found.
Then you’ll know what I know.

Then you’ll know…what I know.

I’ll be back soon…but right now, I need to move with a touch so light.