A Scene

(Start the embedded audio track below now and then continue reading.)

I was driving back from basketball tonight and a U2 song came on the radio. It was 'Where the Streets Have No Name'. I'm sure you've heard it many times, but for those who haven't it starts out with a really haunting synth + guitar intro that gradually fades in.



As the song started a very clear scene surfaced in my mind. It was like something from a movie...a funeral scene.

Imageine it's a clear bright day, in the middle of spring. The sky is blue and clad only by a few wisps of clouds. There's a slight breeze and birds can be faintly heard in the background. It's a pretty typical funeral, a crowd of mourners in black, weeping as a priest reads a prayer. The words of the prayer can only be heard indistinctly and blends with the sounds of sobbing.

The priest finishes the prayer and gestures with his hands. The coffin is lowered into the grave and the camera shot suddenly shifts to the perspective of the coffin - looking up out of the grave at all the surrounding mourners. The brightness of the sky causes a little glare.

As the song picks up the coffin begins to lower into the grave. As it descends it begins to slowly pick up speed and it doesn't stop when it reaches the typical 6 feet. Instead, it keeps falling, faster and faster as the sight of the mourners disappears out of view. The coffin continues on a free fall as if it's falling into a bottomless pit.

Or perhaps it's not really going down. Falling, after all, is relative.