Don’t know if I should kiss it or send it back to hell…

4 min readSep 25, 2021

Tornado Set — Song #4: Jewel Sparkling in the Sun

Remember how in the blog about the Sherlock song I was talking about eating all of what life throws at you? Well, this song extends that metaphor and talks about the resulting indigestion.

I’ve bitten off too much

Walk where the path is rough

What else is there to do but stare into the sun

Embrace my arrogance

Reach up into the stars

Wish from a place of deep uncharted desire

They say that you can attain anything in life, including enlightenment, if you want it enough. Desire is a key component to manifestation. It fuels the engine of becoming.

This song is about the love/hate relationship we have with life and growth. When we growing hard it’s very uncomfortable but when we get through the growth rings, the wholeness feels so good.

This song also brings up the dichotomy between Belonging and Enlightenment.

Call it belonging

Call it truth in a frying pan

Don’t know if I should eat it

Or shove it in the garbage

Call it Satori

Call it cracks in the armored shell

Don’t know if I should kiss it

Or send it back to hell

You may not see the dichotomy. It may be my own attitude here that I’m speaking of. If enlightenment is cutting through to the truth beneath the illusion of life then wanting to belong to the illusion seems like a cross purpose. However, I can also see that belonging is a yearning for oneness which is the essential truth of existence.

I have no conclusion about this.

Do you have a perspective?

If so please comment below.

Nevertheless, this song carries a theme that is expressed in the first two songs: that the curses of life are actually blessings in disguise and the tendency to label parts of life as good and bad is our ego trying to protect itself. I talk about this in a blog called Surf the Swirling Universe.

I like the line, “ I use myself up over and over again”. This reminds me of the notion in Zen that we meditate to wear out our mind. Not to cultivate it, not to get rid of it but to polish it down to something which serves the bigger picture. Jed McKenna talks about this beautifully in his book “Spiritual Enlightenment,The Damnedest Thing.” He says that the process of enlightenment is essentially tearing down in ourselves the things that are in the way of truth. It’s like throwing the best you have against the wall until what is left is irreducible.

https://youtu.be/BQEzxj5FIvY

This song also refers to my wife and her love that found me.

“Discover my love as I am landing a fish”.

She is the jewel that is sparkling in the sun.

One of the reasons I like this song musically is because it has a Texas Country flavor. I use to listen to a musician named Chris Whitley and Jewel Sparkling in the Sun harkens back to him.

Here are the full lyrics:

JEWEL SPARKLING IN THE SUN

I`ve bitten off too much

Walk where the path is rough

What else is there to do but stare into the sun

Embrace my arrogance

Reach up into the stars

Wish from a place of deep uncharted desire

Wish from a place of deep uncharted (desire )4x

Out on the ocean in a glass bottom boat

I see my fears as they come trying to choke

Jump up and down as I am coming alive