Jews Make the Best Storytellers

When I found out Paul Simon's latest tour will be his last, I was relieved to see that Dallas was on the itinerary.  I joined Juli, her mom Donna, her sister Kristi, and Kristi's husband Shane for the show at the American Airlines Center last Friday night.  A few minutes past 8 and the crowd applauded as more than a dozen world class musicians took the stage.  A few moments later, the man joined them and the crowd erupted.  He strummed his guitar and then these words echoed around the arena.

Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our fortunes together
I’ve got some real estate here in my bag”
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner’s pies
And walked off to look for America.

So the journey began.  A journey that began a long time ago in New York City.  The first leg with his High School pal Art, didn't last as long as many might have hoped, but the later legs were just as powerful.  And the journey took him not only across America, but around the world.

A man walks down the street
It’s a street in a strange world
Maybe it’s the third world
Maybe it’s his first time around
He doesn’t speak the language
He holds no currency
He is a foreign man
He is surrounded by the sound, the sound
Cattle in the marketplace
Scatterlings and orphanages

He looks around, around
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity

He says, “Amen!” and “Hallelujah!”

From Austin, TX to South Africa, Paul's hired guns made it obvious that his is a humble genius.  He surrounds himself with singers and players who could hold their own on their own, but together and  with him leading the line, the music made is truly magical.  Though he wrote a song about being an island and shielding himself from others, this clearly is not how he's lived his life.

I have my books 
And my poetry to protect me
I am shielded in my armor
Hiding in my room
Safe within my womb
I touch no one and no one touches me
I am a rock
I am an island

And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries

There are singers and songwriters who paint a canvas with their words and music.  Others are great at telling stories through their songs.  Paul Simon does both.  And why not?  Jews make the best storytellers.

One and one half wandering Jews 

Free to wander wherever they choose

Are traveling together

In the Sangre de Christo

The Blood of Christ Mountains

Of New Mexico

On the last leg of a journey

They started a long time ago

The arc of a love affair

Rainbows in the high desert air

Mountain passes slipping into stone

Hearts and bones

And Jews aren't half-bad at writing poetry.  Have you ever read the Psalms?  

And you read your Emily Dickinson
And I my Robert Frost
And we note our places with bookmarkers
That measure what we’ve lost
Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm
Couplets out of rhyme
In syncopated time
And the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
Are the borders of our lives

Some of the stories Simon tells are "epic" in nature.

In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the remainders
Of every glove that laid him down
And cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
“I am leaving, I am leaving”
But the fighter still remains

And some of the stories are ones that we all relate to.

Sonny sits by the window and thinks to himself
How it’s strange that some roots are like cages
Sonny’s yearbook from high school
Is down on the shelf
And he idle thumbs through the pages
Some have died
Some have fled from themselves
Or struggled from here to get there
Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls
Runs his hands through his thinning brown hair

I have never read an article or heard an interview about Paul Simon's religious beliefs (or lack-there-of).  But, in the very least, many of his songs explore spirituality.  

And so you see, I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you

And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain
There but for the grace of you go I

For over two hours, Paul Simon and his eclectic and embarrassingly talented band captivated the AAC audience.  But after playing over 25 songs, he brought his farewell show in Dallas to an end.  And he ended it, like he began it, by playing a Simon and Garfunkel tune.  

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said “The words of the prophets
Are written on subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence

As he stood alone on stage, strumming his guitar, the words rang out and echoed into the night...until there was only applause, and then...silence. - Shay