The Wind Is Howling

Today's song for meditation is Bob Dylan's 'All Along the Watchtower'.  Bob Dylan once said that every time he performed the song it it felt like a cover of Jimi Hendrix' version, so that's what I'm sharing. As you reflect on the lyrics keep in mind two passages from the Judeo/Christian prophetic tradition (Isaiah 21 and Luke 23) that served as Dylan's frame. Dylan's genius in this song is closing with "...the wind began to howl."  Dylan has framed the conversation between the joker and the thief within the dramatic context of the watchers of Isaiah who announce the collapse of Babylon. But the frame isn't closed. The ending of the song is a doorway that enters our reality, our time, and our frame of reference. Are we watching? Are we alert? Do we know what time it is? And if we do know what time it is have we reckoned with the coming storm?

Isaiah 21:5-9
They set the tables, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink! Get up, you officers, oil the shields! 

This is what the Lord says to me, "Go, post a lookout and let him report what he sees. When he sees chariots with teams of horses, riders on donkeys or riders on camels, let him be alert, fully alert!"

And the lookout shouted:
"Day after day, my Lord, I stand on the watchtower; every night I stand at my post. Look, here comes a man in a chariot with a team of horses. And he gives back the answer, 'Babylon has fallen! Babylon has fallen! All the images of its gods lie shattered on the ground!"

Luke 23:39-43

One of the criminals (the joker) who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the messiah? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal (the thief) rebuked him, "Don't you fear God since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what we deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "Today you will be with me in paradise. Amen."  

Bob Dylan - All Along the Watchtower

"There must be some way out of here, " said the joker to the thief,

"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."

"No reason to get excited, " the thief, he kindly spoke,
"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

Chagall - Isaiah