SCENESSCENESSCENESSCENES
    0
  •   was successfully added to your cart.
  • Home
  • Country
  • Pop
  • Rock
  • Americana
  • R&B
  • Culture
  • Premium
  • About
  • Contact
    • Music Submissions
    • Advertising
      • Media Kit
    • Customer Support
  • Shop

And They All Lived Together in a Crooked Little House

    Home Collage And They All Lived Together in a Crooked Little House

    And They All Lived Together in a Crooked Little House

    By Mary McCleary | Collage, Culture | Comments are Closed | 6 November, 2016 | 0

    There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.
    He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
    He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
    And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

    Some say this old nursery rhyme refers to the time of King Charles I and the border disputes between England and Scotland. But it has always seemed to me to be more about the Fall described in the book of Genesis and it’s affect on all creation. Nothing is quite the way it should be for any of us- man, money, cat, mouse, stile and house, every aspect of the world is crooked. And we are all in it together

    s-l1600-8

    W. H. Auden speaks of the crookedness in relationships in his poem, As I Walked Out One Evening. You are probably familiar with these memorable lines from the poem:

    O stand, stand at the window
    As the tears scald and start;
    You shall love your crooked neighbour
    With your crooked heart.

    I suspect Anne Lamott had this poem in mind when she titled her book.

    s-l1600-20

    The word “crooked” seems to sell books. Publishers can’t get away from it. We have crooked shadows, hinges, men, circles, towns, rivers, candles, arrows, roads and crosses. From a quick glance at the books above the title, it seems that the writers have decided that pretty much everything in the world is amiss. Even Dale Evans finds herself tied up in Crooked Canyon.

    s-l400-2

    I’ve had a longtime fascination with the sleazy covers of these old books. They used to call to us off of revolving metal book racks at drugstores and airports, encouraging us to imagine the worst kinds of human behavior. We’d get a whiff of evil. We’d flirt with it, but it was safe onstage separated from us by the orchestra pit- or the stylized images of the artist’s hand. Viewing it from a distance, we could laugh at the over-the-top illustration on the cover. These books remind me of French philosopher, Simone Weil‘s observation,  “Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.”

    Not long ago, I used a paperback edition of Agatha Christie’s “Crooked House” on a collage. I wanted to refer to the old nursery rhyme and loved the melodramatic cover illustration.

    s-l1600-3

    The title of the collage is But In the End It is Only a Passing Thing…This Shadow. It’s from something Samwise Gamgee said in The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien.

    I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

    "But In the End It is Only a Passing Thing...This Shadow" 2015, Mixed Media Collage on Paper, 52 3/4" x 40" x 2"

    Mary McCleary, But In the End It is Only a Passing Thing…This Shadow, 52 3/4″ x 40″ x 2″ Mixed Media Collage on Paper, 2015

    Samwise asks, “How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?” In other words, how can we straighten out all the crooked things?  There is a longing in every human heart for justice, resolution, restoration, and perfect love. For things that are good, true and beautiful. For life not death. How do we fix a crooked world when we are part of the crookedness? We can’t do it by ourselves. Every effort at utopia ends in dystopia. Are we foolish to even desire something better?

    Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Paleobiology at Cambridge University, wrote, “Suppose that the moral structure, the ethical voice, the heart-wrenching aesthetic, the endless yearning for a world made good, are not the fantasies of a deracinated ape, but rather are signposts to deep realities in which our destiny may be involved.”

    This longing for the crooked to be made straight goes back to the time of the Old Testament prophets in the 8th century BC when Isaiah wrote that one day, “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.” (Isaiah 40:4)

    First century historian, Luke, tells us that John the Baptist quoted this passage as he was preparing the way for Jesus’ ministry. Luke later described Jesus healing a woman whose back had been crooked for eighteen years. Jesus healed that woman with compassion and love, but His action was also symbolic of things to come. As D. L. Moody wrote, “The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out.” But that brings us to a whole other subject, one for another post.

    In the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come.

     

    " But In the End It is Only a Passing Thing...This Shadow", "there was a crooked man", Agatha Christie, Anne Lamott, crooked, Frodo, grace, Isaiah, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jesus, law, Luke, Simon Conway Morris, Simone Weil, W.H. Auden

    Related Post

    • Was Satan Living in David Bowie’s Pool? The Occult’s Influence on Rock ‘n Roll

      By Yeats Brehon | Comments are Closed

      What is the nature of occult’s influence on rock and roll? According to the book Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll by Peter Berbegal, the occult expanded the language and sound of rock and roll, and was more about theater and fun than the diabolical. It’s a good argument, although not entirely convincing.

    • Andrew Sullivan’s War on Cancel Culture

      By Yeats Brehon | Comments are Closed

      The popular and controversial journalist, fifty-seven, has no love for conservatism, yet he has become shocked at how liberalism over the last few years has become censorious and authoritarian.

    • A “Game-Changer” in the Fight Against Human Trafficking

      By Yeats Brehon | 3 comments

      Thanks to The Knoble, the fintech quants who watch money flashing electronically around the world are being enlisted in the fight against sexual trafficking.

    • Warrior Surf Foundation: The Healing Power of the Ocean

      By Yeats Brehon | Comments are Closed

      Combat veteran Andi Manzi found healing through surfing and founded a program for those suffering from PTSD to do the same.

    • zoom fatigue

      Zoom Fatigue is Real and It’s Burdening the Music Industry

      By Amber Hadley | Comments are Closed

      The video conferencing platform seemed like a saving grace for entertainers. Zoom gave musicians a way to pow wow with their fans in a way that perhaps many have never experienced.

    • Sign up for our Daily Digest, where we deliver the top headlines in music and exclusive SCENES Live Sessions details straight to your inbox!

    Download Sessions and Buy Merch

    • Madysyn on SCENES Live Sessions Madysyn on SCENES Live Sessions $2.99
    • Roses and Revolutions on SCENES Live Sessions Roses and Revolutions on SCENES Live Sessions $2.99
    • Amistat on SCENES Live Sessions Amistat on SCENES Live Sessions $2.99
    • Raynes on SCENES Live Sessions Raynes on SCENES Live Sessions $2.99
    • Uche on SCENES Live Sessions Uche on SCENES Live Sessions $2.99
    • Media Kit
    • Privacy Policy
    © 2022 | All Rights Reserved
    • Home
    • Country
    • Pop
    • Rock
    • Americana
    • R&B
    • Culture
    • Premium
    • About
    • Contact
      • Music Submissions
      • Advertising
        • Media Kit
      • Customer Support
    • Shop
    SCENES
      0 items