Society & Culture
Damien Rice is an exceptional singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Ireland. His studio albums are wonderful, and his live performances are powerful exhibits of the human condition translated through music. Rice's compositions, arrangements, and lyrics align exceptionally well with my current existential paradigm. I am traveling through a chapter in this thing we call life that is illuminating my strength, courage, and a path forward that is more honest, humane, emotionally regulated, and interconnected and interdependent than I've ever been. On November 24th, 2020, my friend and a true beacon of healing, Lenée, drew The Tower as my present card during a tarot reading. That was also the last day I ever saw my Mom alive. She lived another 3 weeks, if living is what you want to call it. On December 14th, at 6:36 p.m., Josie Ferguson drew her final breath with me nearby...about 10 feet with a sealed door between us. Covid took her. And that? Was the moment that tore my entire being open and shattered my ego like a piece of crystal tapped firmly with a hammer. I am still within this protracted period of The Tower. Of existential illumination, insight, awakening, and re-emergence. The phoenix is as appropriate and ubiquitous a metaphor as any. I sincerely appreciate you being here, and I hope you'll spend some time with me and Damien Rice and the words of MJ Cullinane, whose tarot deck my wife, quite separately from MY experience, purchased and drew The Tower for HER present card. The thumbnail here is a photo of The Tower from Cullinane's "Guardian of the Night" Tarot deck. -G