Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac is standing underneath a massive tree, looking up through the branches and wind and confusion to the focus of his unrequited love. Roxanne.
She stands on a balcony looking down through the same branches and confusion at who she thinks is the young and handsome Christian de Neuvillette.
With his face, and nose, covered by a scarf; Cyrano speaks the words of love that he had only until this time been able to relay through the dull-witted, but good hearted
Christian...but now, hidden by the night; Cyrano seizes his opportunity and speaks..."
I love thee! I am mad! I love, I stifle!"
Cyrano and Roxanne flirtingly spar with all of the words ever invented that could describe love and beauty and truth and feelings...All of these words flowing from the earthen floor up to a balcony made of stone and back down again.
At one point Roxanne remarks that she can barely hear Cyrano's words and Cyrano explains that because his words must travel UP to her they lose some of their strength, but not their meaning...Cyrano then warns Roxanne to be careful..."
A harsh word from such a height would kill me!"...
Be careful, a harsh word from such a height would kill me.
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Shakespeare wrote of a similar looking scene in Romeo and Juliet where the unrequited lovers are separated by a balcony...but not just by a balcony, they are separated by blood and by name foremost, and therefore can not be allowed to love each other.
Juliet remarks that if not for Romeo's last name their situation would be vastly different..."What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet."
Is it the words that matter or the meaning behind them?
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The other day I got a voice message from my friend Monte.
When I got his message I hadn't seen Monte or spoken to him for almost 6 months, reason being that Monte attends a church that I used to lead worship at but now no longer associate myself with. The church was also how Monte and I met and became fast friends.
The voice message went something like this...
"Ben, it's Monte. I haven't seen you for quite a while and I just wanted you to know that I miss you...and I love you...and I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas and just to tell you that I think that the New Year is going to be...fabulous...for you, and I hope that we see each other soon. Bye."
Though his words were few, Monte's message lasted almost a full 2 minutes.
I think it would be easy for anybody who wasn't paying attention to discount or trivialize Monte's words; especially when he's telling another man that he Misses them and that he Loves them and that the New Year is going to be Fabulous.
But trivializing what he said, and how he said it, would be truly foolish. In my opinion.
I believe that I know enough about Monte to know that the reason he speaks so slowly and deliberately is because he wants every single word to matter, and for the meaning of each of his words to be known and understood.
Understanding this about Monte helped me to soak in what he was saying and not just discount them as just being what you say to a friend that you haven't seen in a while...
I guess that what I'm trying to say is that I want my words to matter.
If I, we, want what we say to count, I'm sure that we will have to be so careful with what we do say and probably not say the first thing that comes into our heads. Far too often, for me, what comes naturally is to drop harsh words from such heights that the hearers would be hurt.
I'm reminded of a quote on my brothers blog from an author who said "A bad attitude is arrogance." In the same way, a harsh word could be seen as foolishness.
We should want for the gravity of our words to weigh heavily on ourselves before we allow them to leave our lips and place their weight on others.
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If I don't get a chance to say this later, Merry Christmas to Everybody, and yes, I too believe that the New Year is going to be fabulous!
