In that old boxcar[1]Laurel Sprengelmeyer, AKA Little Scream, is a Montreal-based Indie musician (she even got her start collaborating with Arcade Fire), but she was originally born in Iowa. Having spent some time in the … Continue reading with the pentagram where the kids all used to hide[2]Given the gothic tone of both the song’s production and the music video, Little Scream is most likely referring to pentagrams in the contemporary Wiccan sense, as associated with witchcraft and … Continue reading
I left my best bracelets there for the scavengers to find.[3]Leaving an offering for the divine; and, following the example of Christ, she has specifically left this offering to the poorest of the poor, “the scavengers,” in whom there is no beauty that we … Continue reading
But when I come back last May [4]Fun fact: In Medieval times, All Souls Day was initially in May, not October. Per Halloween scholar Lisa Morton fact, the reason Pope Gregory III moved it from May to November 2 around AD 1000 was … Continue reading, the boxcar was cut down.
But the smooth scarred[5]Paradoxical pairing of opposites—“smooth” and “scarred”—similar to how Christ descended below all things in order to rise above all things, or how we ourselves are less than the dust of … Continue reading boy with ravaging eyes was still hanging around.
And it was just as I had dreamed it[6]“Behold, I have dreamed a dream…” when we walked along those tracks;
pulling the sparks from an orphaned rainbow[7]The rainbow as we were taught in Primary represents the Covenant from God that he would not again flood the earth; if the rainbow is orphaned however, such seems to insinuate that that promise is … Continue reading that turned our eyes to black
And then we said:
“The people we see as skeletons, we all know by name”[8]How do we avoid the wrath to come? “Stand ye in holy places.” What is our go-to example of Holy Places? The Temple. And what do we do in Temples? Redemptive work for the dead, sealing together … Continue reading
I’m at the top of a hill[9]“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations … Continue reading, receiving signals that go…
I’m going back to that place![10]“The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God” (Isaiah 10:2).
(And if one day you draw a microphone that makes the radio sing…)[11]Once saw her open for fellow Midwesterner Sufjan Stevens in Chicago on the Carrie and Lowell tour, btw; she put on a good show.
I’ll paint a portal through space![12]“I saw a pillar of light”—a portal through space—“directly above my head…”
(And cut the cherry cloth born from a string, I’ll carry everything.)
Then I’ll track you through the alleys and the hours on the trampoline of time.
And then I’ll take:
The cannons in the park and point them, straight into your heart[13]The same God who heals our hearts is the same one who breaks it so abominably; he is the “God of Abraham” because the same God who saved Abraham from the Egyptians also required him to sacrifice … Continue reading
Heart… heart… heart… heart…[14]Why doesn’t God just save the dead for us? He’s all powerful, is he not? Why entrust such eternally-important work to such miserably imperfect mortal beings as us? Precisely because he’s trying … Continue reading
References
| ↑1 | Laurel Sprengelmeyer, AKA Little Scream, is a Montreal-based Indie musician (she even got her start collaborating with Arcade Fire), but she was originally born in Iowa. Having spent some time in the Midwest myself, I can testify that bored kids hanging around old haunted, abandoned boxcars isn’t just a pop-cultural trope, but still a very real phenomenon in the large, emptier parts of the country (I can also confirm that BYUI students breaking curfew still do it in southeastern Idaho). Perhaps that’s why she selected this track to be the lead single for her criminally underrated 2011 debut album The Golden Record (which also serves as one of the more offbeat mainstays of my old Halloween/Day of the Dead playlist). |
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| ↑2 | Given the gothic tone of both the song’s production and the music video, Little Scream is most likely referring to pentagrams in the contemporary Wiccan sense, as associated with witchcraft and devil worship—which is slightly ironic, since the pentagram historically, dating back to at least the Middle Ages, has been associated with the five wounds of Christ, and therefore sacred and holy. (The old LDS pioneer chapel right next to the Utah State Capitol has a pentagram in its stained glass window recall; or at least still did when I lived in Salt Lake City.)
But then, given how she seems to conceive of this old boxcar as a site for the salvation of children—for of such is the kingdom of God—as a place where all “the kids used to hide,” maybe she isn’t using the pentagram all that differently from its medieval roots after all. Heck, even if she’s still deploying the pentagram in the strictly modern Wiccan sense, we are by no means justified in assuming any sort of devilish import to it (at least not if we take our own 12th Aarticle of Faith seriously); the Wiccan Mother Goddess believes in providing refuge for children too. As does our Heavenly Mother, we must assume, if we truly believe in her existence. Maybe that is the Mother Goddess. (“She whom ye ignorantly worship, declare I unto you.”) There has been much chatter of late about how for the first time ever, more young women are leaving the Church (not to mention organized religion in general) than young men. But what’s odd isn’t that they are leaving, but that it took this long for the scales to tip. As has oft been noted by others, most young girls go through a witch phase at some point (typically around puberty) because it’s the one position of power a woman is freely allowed to inhabit in our culture without needing a man to access that power. We most definitely do not provide anything equivalent within our Church. Which is severely ironic, because the sheer, heretical existence (at least as far as “mainstream” Christianity is concerned) of a Heavenly Mother at least theoretically opens up the possibility for an empowering divine feminine within our faith. I sometimes wonder if the Brethren lowkey wish Joseph Smith had never broached the idea of a Heavenly Mother in the first place. But she is there, if only we will open ourselves to her possibilities. Such might redeem even the pentagram again. |
| ↑3 | Leaving an offering for the divine; and, following the example of Christ, she has specifically left this offering to the poorest of the poor, “the scavengers,” in whom there is no beauty that we should desire them, for “inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me.” |
| ↑4 | Fun fact: In Medieval times, All Souls Day was initially in May, not October. Per Halloween scholar Lisa Morton fact, the reason Pope Gregory III moved it from May to November 2 around AD 1000 was specifically to co-opt the pagan Samhain festival in Catholic Ireland and make it Christian (as the Catholic Church had previously done by transforming the Roman Saturnalia in December into Christmas)—and it was those same Irish who bequeathed to us Halloween. That is, Little Scream may have been more right than she realized to connect a symbol of witchcraft to the month of May (which incidentally also happens to be the name of an Arcade Fire song, and the only track with a pulse on 2010’s The Suburbs). |
| ↑5 | Paradoxical pairing of opposites—“smooth” and “scarred”—similar to how Christ descended below all things in order to rise above all things, or how we ourselves are less than the dust of the earth, yet also literal children of God and gods in embryo. |
| ↑6 | “Behold, I have dreamed a dream…” |
| ↑7 | The rainbow as we were taught in Primary represents the Covenant from God that he would not again flood the earth; if the rainbow is orphaned however, such seems to insinuate that that promise is increasingly hanging by a thread (much like the constitution as of late, incidentally). Well, that of that? Do we believe that are the last days of not? |
| ↑8 | How do we avoid the wrath to come? “Stand ye in holy places.” What is our go-to example of Holy Places? The Temple. And what do we do in Temples? Redemptive work for the dead, sealing together the generations, “otherwise the earth would be utterly wasted at his coming” (D&C 2:2). These same dead are left rotting in the ground, leaving behind only their skeletons—a common theme of Halloween decorations. But in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are to cease fearing the dead (“O death, where is thy sting?”) but remember not only will these skeletons one day resurrect, but that these skeletons are our family, our loved ones, that they without us cannot be saved, just as we without them cannot be saved—and that we take their name with us when we go through the Temple.
That is, the people we see as skeletons, we really do know by name… |
| ↑9 | “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isaiah 2:2; 2 Nephi 12:2). |
| ↑10 | “The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God” (Isaiah 10:2). |
| ↑11 | Once saw her open for fellow Midwesterner Sufjan Stevens in Chicago on the Carrie and Lowell tour, btw; she put on a good show. |
| ↑12 | “I saw a pillar of light”—a portal through space—“directly above my head…” |
| ↑13 | The same God who heals our hearts is the same one who breaks it so abominably; he is the “God of Abraham” because the same God who saved Abraham from the Egyptians also required him to sacrifice his son… |
| ↑14 | Why doesn’t God just save the dead for us? He’s all powerful, is he not? Why entrust such eternally-important work to such miserably imperfect mortal beings as us? Precisely because he’s trying to make us eternal beings as well—and the only way he can accomplish the same is by making us filled with charity for the dead whom we have never met. So cleave into charity, the greatest of all, for all things (like that boxcar) must fail— |