"just our hands clasped so tight, waiting for the hint of a spark"

In an excellent look at Deathcab for Cutie's complete ouvre Will Jones, writing in Christianity Today, citing the song's chorus, wrote of I'll Follow You into the Dark when Deathcab's frontman Ben Gibbard sings-

"If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied/And illuminate the 'nos' on their vacancy signs/If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks/I'll follow you into the dark"-

that the song's take away, as is that of the entire album, Plans, on which it appears, "is that life is short and difficult with no ultimate meaning, but if we can just huddle together, we may find some cure for our loneliness and despair. There is no heaven or hell, just the body heat of another mortal to keep us warm."

This seems an appropriate traditio this week.

In his Second Letter to the Corinthians, the apostle wrote: "...although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison... (4:16b-17). While both attempt to account for reality as we often experience it and to grapple with the questions that inevitably arise merely from being alive and being human, one is hopeless while the other is hopeful; one denies and even seeks to foreclose the possibility of an an answer, the other makes a proposal. Both know the necessity of love and our deep not to be alone.