rags of light

[hydriot]

Well, swaddling seems wrong to me, and I have done as much caring of my two children as any mother (including expressing milk and giving it to them) ... to say nothing of the countless nappies changed.

It's not that tight in the uterus until the final days. I can remember watching my son in the womb on the ultrascan and you could clearly see him sucking his thumb. How can he suck his thumb if swaddled (comforters are frowned on in the UK)? To calm him, I would put my finger in his palm and trigger his gripping reflex, another thing that swaddling would have prevented. And how do you change a nappy quickly if he is swaddled?

When he was feeding from the breast, he would move his arm up and down, like a meter registering the rate of flow: it was a lovely gesture of appreciation, and I wouldn't have missed that for anything.

[Cate]

You swaddle when your babe when it's tired and possibly feeling overwhelmed (at least that's when we swaddled). If they want their hands out - they wiggle them out, this is how I knew my first didn't like it he kept wiggling his hands out which seemed to imply to me that he didn't care for it.

I truly believe my younger son liked it. At the end of the day he'd have his bath and milk and new diaper on and then we'd (I say we because this was something my husband could do) we'd wrap him up all snug and cuddle him up rocking and singing him to sleep. I'm sure that he liked it. and no we didn't leave him swaddled all through the day, both of our children were hardly out of our arms for their first few months.

both of my sons did the same thing as your children with their hands while while eating (remember those little head bunts - as if saying come on milk). I appreciate that swaddling wasn't right for your family but for us it was a ritual that added intimacy and I believe helped my son feel safe and secure in his first couple of months.

on the side - I think that comforters are frowned on because of an increased sids risk(baby gets to hot and sleeps to deeply), while proper swaddling lowers the risk.

[Steven]

Hi Jack,

Till your post about swaddling, it had never occurred to me that this stanza
could be taken to be about this. Here's what I took the stanza to be eliciting:
images of God's law, as represented in phylacteries or tefillin, one part of which is bound upon the arm and/or a binding to God's instruction analogous to what Abraham
was instructed to do to his son Isaac. I took the "rags of light" to possibly be referring to
the vanity of style and not to the material of binding/swaddling. Of course,
Jack, I may have missed what you may be correct about. Swaddling, I believe,
has long been practiced in various cultures, but don't know much about it or
whether one of its purposes is to constrain children as a parental management tool.

[lazariuk]

Till your post about swaddling, it had never occurred to me that this stanza
could be taken to be about this. Here's what I took the stanza to be eliciting:
images of God's law, as represented in phylacteries or tefillin, one part of which is bound upon the arm and/or a binding to God's instruction analogous to what Abraham
was instructed to do to his son Isaac. I took the "rags of light" to possibly be referring to
the vanity of style and not to the material of binding/swaddling. Of course,
Jack, I may have missed what you may be correct about. Swaddling, I believe,
has long been practiced in various cultures, but don't know much about it or
whether one of its purposes is to constrain children as a parental management tool.

Hi Steven
That is very similar to how I first considered but I began thinking that much of my considerations about God lacked a female perspective. Some traditions have been neglectful in that area. I hope that God pays attention to these women speaking here if He is going to be binding us tight.

[lazariuk]

To me 'Bind us tight' means as a family.

I like that also. Once when I was a little silly chasing a Haiku (little joke for someone) I was also playing with some geometrical models that involved the closest, tightest packing of spheres. Exactly 12 spheres will fit around a center sphere. That is the tightest fit that can be achieved, the very best we can do to getting the most equal sized objects all touching a center object while touching at least three of it's neighbors. You can't get a tighter fit than that. That is a law of the universe.

When taking my model and moving it away from me I saw that I could never see more than half of it at one time and to see a shape that included all twelve spheres I made a model with vectors joined representing the center of all twelve spheres. When moving it around in front of me I saw that no matter which way I turned it I could see the outline of the Star of David or with a more rounded imagination I could see the shape of Leonard's joined hearts.

This leads me to think that "bind us tight" can also mean to be bound to those who we really can get the closest to. That might require a prayer because It is often very hard to tell who you will be able to get really close to.

[MaryB]

I always thought that the first three lines was imploring a Supreme Being to not forsake us and to keep humankind together in a peaceful frame of mind.

[anneporter]

Since this riff on "bind us tight" has led to newborn babies and breastfeeding, here's another association for you to think about: have you ever heard of a breast binder? It is a cloth wrapping, pulled very tight (in contrast to snug but loose for infant swaddling) around the breasts of a new mother as the milk comes in, to stop the milk if the mother is not going to breast feed. It can be quite painful, and has a sense of loss about it....

[lazariuk]

And end this night
If it be your will

I was wondering how this line might relate to binding and what might end the night. - Then I heard this:

The hasidic rabbi asked his students

How do you know that the night is really over?

They gave various answers like:

You can see the outline of a tree on the farthest hill
You can discern one animal from the next in the surrounding fields
You can look at your palm and see all the lines

Then the rabbi gave his answer

When you can look into the face of every person you meet and see that they are your brother or sister

I liked where that led my thoughts because it seems to connect well with binding.

[Steven]

HI Jack,

Yeah, lots of traditions do lack that perspective.

Speaking of binds, I'm hoping to run into Leonard's Sisters of Mercy who have a
bind with love "graceful and green as a stem."

[lazariuk]

HI Jack,
Yeah, lots of traditions do lack that perspective.

Hi Steven
They do? Can you name me one? You are referring to religious traditions aren't you?

Speaking of binds, I'm hoping to run into Leonard's Sisters of Mercy who have a
bind with love "graceful and green as a stem."

Which one would you prefer :charm, beauty, or joy ? You can have all three.

[Steven]

"They do? Can you name me one? You are referring to religious traditions aren't you?"
-- Yes. Can name two, which historically have been of a highly patriarchal orientation:
Judaism and Christianity.

"Which one would you prefer :charm, beauty, or joy ? You can have all three."
-- You know, Jack, they inspired this song that has all three. Just the other night,
looked up at the moon as the words "you can read their address by the moon"
came to mind. Were it only one, there'd be some of the other two coming along
for the ride, probably.

[lazariuk]

-- Yes. Can name two, which historically have been of a highly patriarchal orientation:
Judaism and Christianity.

The Rabbi I told the story of was in the Jewish tradition and St. Francis who certainly seemed to have the perspective of seeing all persons as brothers or sisters was in the Christianity tradition.

-- You know, Jack, they inspired this song that has all three. Just the other night,
looked up at the moon as the words "you can read their address by the moon"
came to mind. Were it only one, there'd be some of the other two coming along
for the ride, probably.

I am not sure if you are hearing the song in the same way that I am. When I hear "sisters of mercy" I think he is singing about charm beauty and joy. When he says "we were not lovers like that" he is saying that the sisters that he is hoping you meet were not really ones that he could become jealous of you spending time with.

Is that how you hear the song?

[charlajoy]

"They do? Can you name me one? You are referring to religious traditions aren't you?"
-- Yes. Can name two, which historically have been of a highly patriarchal orientation:
Judaism and Christianity.

I cannot speak for Judaism, but as for Christianity, Jesus said, "You have let go of the commands of God and are holding onto the traditions of men" (Mark 7:8). Traditions have become so mixed with the true essence of Christianity that it has become stench to our nostrils. Indeed, the mixing of the two has dehabilitated more men and women than we can possibly imagine. We've become castrated in our own way, neither hot nor cold, neither male nor female, not knowing who we are but only that we painfully exist. This is the significance of LC's poetry for me: I am listening, and I am learning how to find my balance in this spiritual and insane world. Thanks to Leonard and most considerably to G-d for giving me the awareness of this Light. charlajoy

P.S. I like LC's way of introducing the sisters. They are, in my understanding, angels not to be reckoned with in the same plane as others. There will be no jealousy from LC toward us as we meet them or jealousy toward them because Leonard has met them... Awesome! Please excuse me for getting into the middle of this particular discussion which was actually addressed to Steve. My apologies; yet, my intentions are to add, not take away. Thahks1

[Steven]

Hi Jack,

I like traditions that honor all persons as brothers and sisters. Some traditions, though,
hold separate but not equal positions for their brothers and sisters, for e.g.
in the lines of command (priesthood traditionally assigned to the male), subservience
to authority of the husband in the household, and other lineage-based transmissions.
I like the story you told, Jack.

The impression I'm currently holding of "Sisters of Mercy," is largely the result of
Nadel's biography, which relates that the "Sisters" were two young women who
Leonard provided his hotel room bed to, because they didn't have one. And that
he wrote the song by the time the morning came, with the night having been platonic.
So, I hear the song now as relating to qualities of charm, beauty and joy -- in their
personhoods. The lack of jealousy there because there wasn't a posessiveness;
sex wouldn't have spoiled that, anyway (or so he sings). If there had been sex,
"it would still be all right." Those "Sisters," I think, are presented as archetypes of what is possible to find through meeting others.

[Steven]

Charlajoy,

You've added and not intruded. It is a good thing to find Light, in Leonard's
verse and all over the place, in this "spiritual and insane world."