The Secret of the Festival of Sandcastles

[bnewman]

The hidden, strangely recursive mythology behind the Festival of Sandcastles

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

listen to this song

/ Em C Em D / Em C G D / / /

 

Would you now learn the mysterious truth

That everyone knows and yet nobody tells

Of that festive occasion, beloved of youth

The Sandcastle Season we all know so well?

 

Then come with me, friends, let's go down to the sea

At the ebb of the tide, at the half of the moon

Bring buckets and shovels and afternoon tea

Slip across Shoreline Avenue, climb over the dune

 

/ G D Em D / C G Em D / C D G Em / 2nd /

/ C D G Em / / C D Em C / Em C D G /

 

And we'll build sandcastles, proud and tall

Cities for fairies to dwell in

And we'll spread our blankets and picnics, all

And watch 'til the tide brings the swell in

 

For civilizations rise and fall

And fate comes for us, be we large or small

The days dart past while the ages crawl

And the tale is revealed in the telling

 

When you build on the beach have you ever imagined

Diminutive fairies who come there to live?

Are they dwelling right now in the castles we've fashioned?

Look now and see, if you dare to believe...

 

With their smallness of size comes a briefer duration

The short span of time that we call a day

Is an age of the world for their civilization

Until the tide rises and sweeps it away

 

And yet think of the sandcastles they must build

That each breaking wave washes over

With what strange, brief creatures might they be filled

Too small for our eyes to discover?

 

And do they tell stories, as dreamers will

Of worlds yet smaller, or larger still?

Do you see at last what the sands reveal?

Within every world there's another

 

Now, who here has been to the capital city

And stood in the center of Origin Square?

Recall to your mind those colossal cathedrals

The spires and towers and palaces there

 

Our school-teachers take us to visit these towers

Whose age and whose makers, they say, are unknown

Not daring to name those mysterious powers

Much older than ancient and stronger than stone

 

Who built their sandcastles, proud and tall

Cities for people to dwell in

Are they watching still from the mountain wall?

Do they tell the same tale we are telling?

 

For worlds must end, be they large or small

And for men and fairies and titans, all

The days dart past while the ages crawl

'Til the turn of the tide brings the swell in

 

Our history begins with the works of the titans

The cities and nations they founded and taught

But legends still whispered 'round campfires at night

Tell of worlds gone before that were drowned and forgot

 

This world of the fairies we've built with our hands

Is more true and more real than a game that we play

Watch as their cities return into sand

You are titans to them — can you hear when they pray?

 

The end will come, be it swift or slow

And none can preserve what they fashion

When we shape a world we must let it go

Can we keep the waves from their crashing?

 

Can we save this world for the fairies?— No

If the titans still watch us, they never show

But things stand above as they stand below

So remember these worlds with compassion

Comments

[kanef]

I'm starting to really love this song the more I hear and read it, Ben.

The nested-world idea also remind me of two specific things I've seen on TV that were wonderful. I'll share one for now: a brief scene in the Malcolm in the Middle episode where the family joins a church just to get free day care, and the little kid, Dewey, earnestly explains his interpretation of what he's recently been told to believe about his relationship to God. (Season 4 Episode 22, and if there were a way I could link to an official copy of the scene one could rent for 25 cents I would, but for convenience you can find a bootleg of that scene on YouTube, at https://youtu.be/EMKEJRUznLk or by searching for "Malcolm in the Middle - Dewey's take on God".)