August 23, 2008 – Bear Witness

I recently attended a funeral where the pastor was not acquainted with the deceased, or the family. Beforehand, he’d been in touch with the family via email to learn something about the woman who was to be buried. He asked for stories.

At the graveside, he recounted stories, wove them into his funeral services–sometimes the whole story, sometimes just a reference. I could tell these stories made a difference.

I wonder how many of us hope for a narrative that makes sense at a funeral. That the person who died had a story of their life–one that seemed to have an arc, a climax, a purpose. While we often choose a minister who personally knew the deceased or at least the family, I can understand how much more a family who doesn’t know the minister might be yearning for him/her to speak a narrative of a life they knew, even if he didn’t. And what pressure on a minister to create that from stories and testimonies.

But still I was awed by the feeling that he successfully gave back to them a story of their mother–a life they recognized, complete with purpose and narrative arc, as if it had been written by her, or by God himself. And how they seemed satisfied by that story–as if the completion of a story gives us closure.

Certainly those of us who are living hope that our lives are creating a story with a narrative arc. I’m thinking I should jot down some notes for a minister here about what my story was–just in case he needs some pointers.

Hey, The American Astronaut, a film-noir musical about a steampunk astronaut, isn’t the most widely known astronaut in music. I got to feeling nostalgic about Major Tom and other Musical Odes to Astronauts and found a few that I thought you might enjoy.

Most of these songs characterize the astronaut as lonely and eventually disconnected–disconnected from family as he leaves, disconnected from Earth, and in a few of the songs, disconnected from the spaceship as well, as he floats out into the nothing of space. Bowie’s song was in 1969, timed to coincide with the first moon landing; Elton John’s in 1972 and Peter Schilling’s in 1983. I add Duran Duran’s Astronaut as a contrast–he’s “leaving with an astronaut” which makes the song much more about coupling than de-coupling. And then, the opening to “Enterprise”–“Faith of the Heart” that celebrates astronauts as parts of teams.

I think the lonely/together idea is interesting when you talk about astronauts. Are we starting to see astronauts not as those who leave community, but those who are creating community? The first three songs are about leaving, about separating, and about not trusting Ground Control and where they might be sending humans. The other two, perhaps, are seeing the adventurous side of being an astronaut again, certainly about being part of a larger community which connects all the aviation pioneers in a long line of exploration and pushing out into space–which according to Star Trek– is densely populated.

Welcome, “lonely” astronaut!

Below: David Bowie “Space Oddity”; Elton John, “Rocket Man”; Peter Schilling “Major Tom”; Duran Duran “Astronaut” and Russell Watson’s “Faith of the Heart,” the opening to the TV series “Enterprise.”