Historical Setting, 629 C.E. Vosges Mts.
The feasting begins. Wine is raised to toast bride and groom. “Here, here” we all are together, beloved people, celebrating every name for love under the canopy of sky and forest.
It’s a gluttonous feast, barbaric and loud. The bridal couple and musicians eat first. So, it isn’t long before the music begins that captures the rabble in tempo – the unison beat on a hollow gourd, shared heartbeat of music.
Thad leads the musicians. This is the first time in a long time Brandell’s musicians have all played their old songs together. After Brandell left, the crowds at the winter parties thinned. Musicians each found new venues. Thad plays for the king now. He dresses in gold and jewels, as when he visited Constantinople on the journey to find a new wife for King Dagobert. That gift ship was in port in Constantinople a summer ago, so Thad went into the city and found Brandell there simply by following the music. Now Thad is still dressed up in his royal finery, and for his harp he now has a Greek Kithara. It’s not just because of this versatile harp with many sounds, there are other reasons why this music may be the best it has ever been. Music is the mystical reach touching us in celebration. And it is present here in a rhythm so that even Mater Doe can know is music.
Now Brandell and Gaia go into the center of the clearing, standing together like two dancers who would start the vine dance. The people murmur, “surely a blind woman can’t dance,” And now she dances. They dance! Right at the shouting place in the music, both have that precise little flick of heel, the kick, the dip of the knee, the bend of the hip Gaia does it in perfect time, that was always Brandell’s little special thing. They dance!
Others join in the dance. And now so many of us are dancing – hands to shoulders, hands to shoulders, a circle inside a circle – one circle turning one way, the other the other, Christians, Jews, Pagans, children, elders, everyone is connected to everyone in God’s huge all-encompassing vine of holy love. We circle around, and then into the center, and then the shout.
The torches are lit! More food! More wine! More music! In the dizzying moment of remembrance, I feel the presence of my childhood friend who whispered to all of us who come to feast, “I am the vine and you are the branches…” [John 15:5]
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 