Ya subhannallah!

I once saw an interview on YouTube with Aaron Weiss (I'd find and share it with you if my computer had working sound..) in which he diverted any praise or glory cast upon him to God. The media present seemed at least slightly confused, so Aaron explained that any "good" he did (I quoted good because Aaron would surely question the word) came from God and was not his own. He intended it to be very clear that he was a simple instrument of God and deserved no credit for any of his laudable work.

"And Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.'"

Mark 10:18 E.S.V.

I must admit that I am many times guilty of this borderline idolatry (quite often, ironically enough, with Aaron himself!). If even Jesus denies being capable of good, it's dreadfully obvious that God is at work within the world, and we ought to give credit where credit is due.

it's all crazy! it's all false! it's all a dream! it's alright

As I sit and cringe in unbearable anticipation of mewithoutYou's fourth full-length album (see title) set to release on May 19th (Tuesday!), I figure it'd be at least entertaining, if not serving some unseen purpose worth even a penny more, to compose a list of my absolute favorite mwY quotes.

But first, a brief word.

Aaron Weiss, the lead singer and songsmith for mwY, is, in my opinion, the single most profound, insightful and aesthetic lyricist/poet of the last decade or so. His use of antique, humble imagery has often served as a gateway to some of the most personal epiphanies and abstruse revelations I've ever experienced. Not only has his inspired mind led to many spells of seclusion from the rest of the world just to dwell on perhaps a single line or verse, but it has all been relevent! I can relate so well with the angsty, existential struggles in "[A-->B] Life (2002)," the soteriological realizations and diminishing self-loathings in "Catch for Us the Foxes (2004)," and the paradigmatic shift from a sorrowful belief in Jesus Christ to a joyful one in "Brother, Sister (2006)." Sometimes I fear this man's words resonate within me more impactfully than Christ's do. Aaron Weiss is an honest Christ-seeker in a day quite inconducive to taking the gospel seriously. So, without further ado, I present my list of significant A. Weiss quotes with hopes that we will learn from him what he has learned from God.

"You were a song that I couldn't sing,
You were a story I couldn't tell.
I've only ever loved myself,
But I've loved myself so well.
And how defeated I return!
(you're nice and blue, you're nice and blue)
I missed what I was supposed to learn,
As all I learned about was missing you."

Nice and Blue - [A-->B] Life

"When she stands before your throne,
Dressed in beauty not her own,
All soft and small, you'll hear her call,
'You brought me here, now take me home.'"

Silencer - [A-->B] Life

"We'll be like torches... with whatever respect our tattered dignity demands,
Torches together, hand in hand."

Torches Together - Catch for Us the Foxes

"My forehead no longer sweet with holy kisses worthy of your fiery lips,
I was floating in a peaceful sea 'rescued' by a sinking ship.
If I could become the servant of all... no lower place to fall."

January 1979 - Catch for Us the Foxes

"You, my hidden pearl of pure and perfect love,
And I'm the living example of 100% the opposite of this."

Tie Me Up! Untie Me! - Catch for Us the Foxes

"God is love, and love is real,
But the dead are dancing with the dead.
And whatever's charming disappears,
While all things lovely only hurt my head."

The Soviet - Catch for Us the Foxes

"I said 'water' expecting the word would satisfy my thirst,
Talking all about the second and third,
When I haven't understood the first."

My Exit, Unfair - Catch for Us the Foxes

"Rehearsed indifference tossed aside,
Our narrow arms spread wide,
What unseen pen etched eternal things on the hearts of human kind,
But never let them in our minds?"

My Exit, Unfair - Catch for Us the Foxes

"Oh, but I'm so small, I can barely be seen.
How can this great love be inside of me?
Look at your eyes, they're small in size,
But they see enormous things."

Four Word Letter (Pt. Two) - Catch for Us the Foxes

"If there was no way into God,
I would never have laid in this grave of a body for so long."

Carousels - Catch for Us the Foxes

"Oh Christ, when you're ready to come back,
Then I think I'm ready for you to come back,
But if you want to stay wherever exactly it is you are,
That's okay, too.
It's really none of my business."

Carousels - Catch for Us the Foxes

"I do not exist, we faithfully insist,
While watching sink the heavy ship of everything we knew.
If ever you come near, I'll hold up high a mirror,
Lord, I could never show you anything as beautiful as you."

Messes of Men - Brother, Sister

"A fish swims in the sea,
While the sea is in a certain sense contained within the fish.
Oh, what am I to think of what the writing of a thousand lifetimes
Could not explain if all the forest trees were pens
And all the oceans ink?"

The Dryness and the Rain - Brother, Sister

"Wolf am I... no, 'shadow' I think is better,
'Cause I'm not something, more like the absence of something,
So shadow am I!"

Wolf Am I! (And Shadow) - Brother, Sister

"In the clarity of such grace,
You'll forget all about me."

Nice and Blue (Pt. Two) - Brother, Sister

"What good is each good thing we think we do?"

The Sun and the Moon - Brother, Sister

"If I was Samson I'd have found that harlot's blade
And cut my own hair short!
Then in a market dimly lit,
I come casually to pay,
You see my coins are counterfeit,
But you accept them anyway."

In a Market Dimly Lit - Brother, Sister

Now, for my absolute, all-time favorite, I am going to throw up the entire song, because it really is that good. Oh, and I really encourage you to go listen to mewithoutYou if you've never given them a chance (start with "Catch for Us the Foxes"). Nearly each and every song is a masterpiece by itself. I have been heavily, heavily influenced by the wonders of this band (i.e., God!).

"And not one motion or gesture could I forget,
The prettiest bag lady I ever met...
Pushing her cart in the rain, then gathering plastic and glass,
She watched the day pass,
Not hour by hour... but pain by pain.
I was a basket filled with holes, and she was the sand I tried to hold
That ran out behind me as I swung with some invisible hand.

I stopped believing, you start to move,
(and she was like wine turned to water then turned back to wine)
I stopped my leaving, and the better man bloomed.
(and you can pour us out and we won't mind)

I was dead then alive,
She was like wine turned to water then turned back to wine.
You can pour us out, we won't mind,
A scratch around the mouth of the glass, "My life is no longer mine."

And if you're still looking for a blanket, sweetie,
I'm sorry, I'm no sort of fabric.
But if you need a tailor... then take your torn shirt, stumble up my stairs
And mumble your pitiful prayers, and in your tangled, knotted sleep,
Our midnight needles go to work until all comfort and fear flows in one river
Down in the shop by the mirror where you see yourself whole... and it makes you shiver.

I stopped believing, you start to move,
(and she was like wine turned to water then turned back to wine)
I stopped my leaving, and the better man bloomed.
(and you can pour us out and we won't mind)

I was dead then alive,
She was like wine turned to water then turned back to wine.
You can pour us out, we won't mind,
A scratch around the mouth of the glass, "Our lives our not our own."

Even the wind lay still,
Our essence was fire and cold... and movement, movement!
Oh, if they ask you for the sign of the father in you,
Tell them it's movement, movement, movement and... repose."

Paper-Hanger - Catch for Us the Foxes
(The best song of all time.)