An outright dedication, this post is for Lauren.

Waiting for a Superman
Lyrics By Iron and Wine

I asked you a question and I didn’t need you to reply
Is it getting heavy?
But then I realize, is it getting heavy
Well, I thought it was already as heavy as can be

Is it overwhelming to use a crane to crush a fly?
It’s a good time for Superman to lift the sun into the sky
‘Cause it’s getting heavy
Well, I thought it was already as heavy as can be

Tell everybody waiting for Superman
That they should try to hold on the best they can
He hasn’t dropped them, forgot them or anything
It’s just too heavy for a Superman to lift

Is it getting heavy?
Well, I thought it was already as heavy as can be

Tell everybody waiting for Superman
That they should try to hold on the best they can
He hasn’t dropped them, forgot them or anything
It’s just too heavy for a Superman to lift

Before trivializing the lyrics see them in the light of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy on the Overman or Superman. We live in a world of aspiring, faltering, Supermen and Superwomen. Individuals that believe they can do everything for themselves; taking themselves, their passions, pleasures, identities, and thoughts with the upmost seriousness. Those of faith trying to take everything upon themselves, or thinking another can relieve the onus of life. A contemplative living a life lacking prayer, forcing everything through sheer determined self-will. The gentle soft touch of Iron and Wine, Sam Beam, imploring that really Superman hasn’t failed, it’s just too damn heavy to lift is really quite profound, beautiful when so finely sung. My son just text me informing me he thinks someone else wrote the song. LOL, a reminder sometimes being wrong is more spiritually advantageous than being right. The video is expressive in its dismal take on an existential Christmas season, a complete emptiness of hope for those waiting on a superman.

Zarathustra

“Behold, I teach you the overman (Superman). The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth! I beseech you, my brothers, remain faithful to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying and poisoned themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so let them go.

“Once the sin against God was the greatest sin; but God died, and these sinners died with him. To sin against the earth is now the most dreadful thing, and to esteem the entrails of the unknowable higher than the meaning of the earth.

….
“I love those who do not first seek behind the stars for a reason to go under and be a sacrifice, but who sacrifice themselves for the earth, that the earth may someday become the overman’s (superman’s).

From Book 1, Zarathustra’s Prologue, 4

The context in which the Overman or Superman is to be judged to be such is implied by Neitzsche’s previous works. He maintained that all human behavior is motivated by the will to power. In its positive sense, the will to power is not simply power over others, but the power over oneself that is necessary for creativity. Supermen are those who have overcome man – i.e. the individual self – and subliminated the will to power into a momentous creativity.

Supermen are creators of a “master morality” that reflects the strength and independence of one who is liberated from all values, except those that he deems valid. Such power is manifested in independence, creativity, and originality.

Nietzsche saw the Superman as the answer to the nihilistic rejection of all religious and moral principles that would be consequent on a widespread acceptance that God is dead. The Superman being the exemplar of true humanity.

Nietzsche’s philosophical concepts were often concerned with areas that came within the interest of the emerging school of Existentialism and came to the particular notice of numerous thinkers, writers, and theologians who were themselves broadly interested in Existentialism. Amongst these are Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, Martin Buber, Paul Tillich, Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre.

 

Here is hope transcending, waiting upon a vibrant faith, nurturing pure charity–the remnants of a proper sacrificial salvific parting.