If I could share my shavings of light

Friday, that most-popular dude of the week, has resurfaced.  He's subdued this morning, though, bowed down with the weight of Japanese tragedy after one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded was followed by a terrible tsunami.  It is impossible to see, hear, and understand the magnitude of destruction and loss of life and livelihood without being heartsick. 

In the comparatively very-mundane world of commuting music, I'm still in Sigur Rós mode this morning.  More precisely, my iPod is still set to my Sigur Rós playlist, but that's only partially because I've been to busy and/or too lazy to change it.  It's also because it's just such good stuff that it's hard to want to change it.  Two roughly ten-minute tracks covered the commute this morning, one studio recording and one live.  The track Svefn-G-Englar, from the album of the same name, is one of my two favorite Sigur Rós tunes from my favorite Sigur Rós album.  On the drive home from campus last night the same tune played, but from the earlier Agætis Byrjun album.  Both versions are clearly the same tune, but each has it's own distinct flavor.  The Live Jonsí track finished up just as I pulled into a parking spot on campus. 

I am not certain what Svefn-G-Englar means (some sources suggest sleepwalking or, as a play on words with the hyphens, sleepwalking angel, but I can't verify any of that credibly), but Agætis Byrjun translates as good beginning. Fitting, I hope, for a Friday morning. I only wish I could share that good beginning with others who need it more this morning.  I am helplessly reminded of Bruce Cockburn's song, Isn't That What Friends Are For, when he sings:

I've been scraping little shavings off my ration of light

And I've formed it into a ball, and each time I pack a bit more onto it

I make a bowl of my hands and I scoop it from its secret cache

Under a loose board in the floor

And I blow across it and I send it to you

Against those moments when

The darkness blows under your door

Isn't that what friends are for?

Today's full playlist:

 - Sigur Rós: Svefn-G-Englar

 - Jonsí: Grow Till Tall (Live)