July 31st: 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐢 𝐒𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐡! "𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐚 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐑𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐆𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐅𝐚𝐥𝐥"
Accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature for Bob Dylan in Stockholm, Patti Smith gave one of the most mesmerizing performances that I have ever seen. But the reason for this was not so much her singing per se, but the way that she transformed losing her place part way through into a sudden revelation of her raw humanity that brought the grand audience and the grand occasion into a dawning encounter with the profound truths at the heart of the song itself.
This same awareness seems to underlie our present moment as well, as the world is being asked--asked by itself--whether it can come into contact with the truth about the coronavirus, climate change, social and racial injustice, and other manifestations of our alienation from our true selves and one another, or whether traumatic images like those in the song will continue to seal us in collective pain and separation. The hard rain is quite possibly a kind of second flood, G-d's or the universe's offer of an opportunity to go beyond what we have so far created.