This is the final version of the brief words I spoke during the candlelight tribute :
Light and Death
“When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.”
― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Each of us is here because Steve touched our hearts and our souls. Some of his music was dark, but it was true. Carl Jung said:
"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.”
Like his favorite author, Thomas Wolfe, Steve wrote mostly about the past, and its loss. But in the dark night of the soul, pain leads ultimately to light. In the waiting, however, we can be tempted to despair. In his last days, Steve flirted with the nihilistic atheism of Stephen Hawking. Another physicist was probably more accurate in Steve’s case, Edward Teller: “When you get to the end of all the light you know and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.”
Let these candles, as we light them one, represent all the gifts we have received from Steve and his music. From Leonard Cohen:
"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.”
In the end, I believe Steve was ready for death, for the answers to the mystery he had sought all his life. Annie Dillard, in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek writes: “I think that the dying pray at the last not 'please,' but 'thank you,' as a guest thanks his host at the door. Falling from airplanes the people are crying thank you, thank you. Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet. There is nothing to be done about it, but ignore it, or see.”
Finally, Steve simply let go and plunged into that mystery. He just let God take him: “In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness, and to guide our feet into the way of peace."
Like Rosa Maria, we pray for him, in this traditional prayer for the dead:
"Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace."
