Solace and Loyalty in the Middle of Terror: Rainer Maria’s “Catastrophe Keeps us Together”

Maybe it was because the architects of sorrow were at it again, turning parts of Lebanon and Israel into a film set hawkishly marrying Mission Impossible III and Open City. The war of the worlds poetry of gunships and Soviet-era rockets raining and reigning as families huddle deeper into the recesses both of their homes and hearts, trying to find shelter in an age still mired and shredded by the tendencies of Old Testament bloodletting, is a hard nod to the faltering maps of our own existence.

Sunday: I was stuck in Borders, for hours, it seems, biding time until I could pick up my wife from her long-winded retail job miles north, off the freeway and had just read the political journals, written in earnest and measured in pounds of analysis, that were trying to weigh in on foreign affairs prior to 3,00 people dying in Irag last month, or Israeli soldiers being nabbed, or hell unleashed on Southern Lebanon, or a tsunami revisiting the Far East in six foot tall currencies of death. I turned to the poet Robinson Jeffers for some west coast oceanic solace, but he just let this one line dangle in front of my face for five minutes — “stark violence is still the sire of all the world’s values.” Truth need not be anything but brief, I was reminded.

Shuffling with headsets, I kept looking for some new music to bury me in a kind of satori, some flash of truth, some brief burst of meaning that could make me feel weightless, then Caithlin De Marrais’ voice swept down the inner tunnel of my ear, “at the end of the world/will you swim for me…” or I think that’s what I caught, or wanted to catch, a kernel to keep me resilient, or simply in the arms of hope. Writers have zoomed in on the personal sense of trials and tribulations echoed on the album, like Melissa Brown over at All Music Guide, penning, “De Marrais acknowledges that difficulties happen (or have happened) and that not much can be done but sing about them. She hasn’t resigned herself; she just isn’t taking immediate action. The opener, the made-for-stadium-anthem “Catastrophe,” talks about what the characters will do at the end of the world (“I’ve got a plan, I’m going to find you,” she sings, almost ominously), a steady drum and driving guitar propelling the song along, with De Marrais’ bass monotonously echoing the guitar line, making it very radio-friendly.” Yet, when I hear the words “I’m going to find you…” and “will you swim for me?” I could care less about the radio-friendly composite rendered by their producer in upstate New York who has handled biggies before. I just let those lines form a shell around me, a kind of promise to continue. Will catastrophe keep them together, I wonder, looking at pictures of ferries leaving Lebanon for Greece, or little boys about to jettison Beirut in a helicopter, or lovers leaving hotels under the coughs of sky sizzling bombs, or dust and debris settling on bodies turned into pummeled puppets for beliefs that no one person can get his or her head around to make the real meaning stick.

To me, the lyrics unlock something akin to Wim Wender’s “Until the End of the World,” a post-apocalyptic quest to rekindle what’s left of the human genome of the spirit since technocracy flailed us. Do we turn inwards, capturing lost cinemas of the mind, or do we turn towards the fields, the horizon, or the road stretching from under our feet, or the salt-leaden sea? As the sonic concussions rattle down the concrete avenues of Beirut, or the missiles nail another random home in Haifa, I wonder who is driving right now? And the when the flood walls, the dams, the barriers, all crumble, who will be swimming for their loved ones, and who will be standing by the flags.

excerpts…

Catastrophe Keeps Us Together

All the dams will give 
at the end, at the end, at the end, 
Of the world. 
Will you swim for me? 



And the lights can go 
at any time, any time, any time, any time.. 
How will you look for me? 

And the bridges that burn at the end,
at the end, at the end, of the world.. 
How will we cross the seas? 

And the plans have got to hold
a destination that you and I
can rely on for sure. 

I want you to find me. 



…Do you think we could go on forever? 
When the architects of the world 
are handing out the swords?

But I’ve got a plan 
I’m gonna find you 

At the end
Of the world
At the end
Of the world

…So how will you look,
how will you look
how will you look for me?

Well I’ve got a plan,
I’m gonna find you. 

I’m gonna find you 
At the end
of the world.
At the end 
of the world.

At the end 
(I’ve got a plan, I’m gonna find you)

I’m gonna find you
I’m going to find you at the end of the world.

(thanks to www.leoslyrics.com)