To Have Hope

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Over Labor Day Weekend, I took CBS.com up on its Elementary marathon offer and started rewatching Season 1. If you haven’t yet seen it — do. I must admit that I prefer Sherlock, but Elementary is a close second.

At the end of Episode 2, I was struck by the closing song, and was reminded of previously liking the haunting melody. But this time, I zeroed in on the words — pleased to hear one of my favourites: hope. Over and over and over again.

{monday melodies} songs to start your week

» Barbarossa’s Bloodline; featured on Elementary (S01E02)

The song begins with an almost Rilke-esque stanza:

Take my hand
If it gets you through then it’s all right
Take my hand

Reminds me of lines from a Rilke poem:

…don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.

Barbarossa’s lyrics are simple, a few metaphors here and there, but mostly the song is captivatingly simple — a brilliant combination of music and words that somehow make of each other something more.

But it’s the repeated phrase, “To have hope,” which I can’t get out of my head, as well as the single phrase, “Take your time.”

I’ve always been fascinated by hope. A few years ago, I heard that in Hebrew to hope and to wait are two sides of a coin. At first I didn’t like this idea at all. I love hoping, but hate waiting. How can they be the same? But then, I realised that they are indeed companions. Hope is focused on the not-yet-but-expected. So is waiting. Hope is often looked on as happy, while waiting gets a grueling rap. But hope is not really so easy. Hope is exercised and tested in the waiting. Waiting is elevated and dignified in the hoping. The two are indeed one.

Soon after discovering this, I got a tattoo to remind myself. On the outside of my wrist is the word wait, on the inside is hope.

I heard that sense of both the waiting and the hoping in Barbarossa’s Bloodline. Definitely a song I could listen to on repeat. Glad I stumbled across it again.

» Listen to Barbarossa’s Bloodline.

Have you heard any “hope” songs recently?

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