Is There Anything That Love Can Do?

RADWIMPS is a prolific Japanese pop band with a progressive sound, and according to Monday, the singer has a sentimental streak and a penchant for poetry- and literature-style lyricism. I love this song, though I can't say I understand it all. Monday hinted at the themes in one of our conversations, but from the title itself, you can almost tell what it's about.

If/when love disappears, was it ever real? Did it matter at all?

That's something that aches and sits with wonder at the same time. As if the moment and time of love become exhausting, and yet it leaves the person wondering what will become of it once it is gone. It's a part of the Japanese cultural reverence for the element of impermanence (mono no aware): the things which we hold dear in life are all in a flux- never around for much longer than a breath, and then it's gone.

The temptation is to hold tight onto those moments. Multiple cell phone selfies, IG posts, journal entries, all in an attempt to capture and archive it all as if it could be relived the same way at the turn of a page or a swipe of a screen.

The young, not foolish, but inexperienced, try as they might to archive it. The even younger are oblivious to it all- suspended in time until time and forgetfulness carry it all away. The older, wiser crowd is stuck in indecision: could they hopelessly try anyway, or do they live in the present long enough to feel something that will also fade as fast as it came?

That's where this song comes into the picture. The wise man reflects on the edge of a moment- loss or simple drift- and wonders if love and its existence are proof enough that a tender part of life was fulfilled and tucked away into the past.

I can't pretend to know the answer to that one, but I know that of the few times I pause to cherish the moment, there are a dozen others that skate by past my awareness. Was that a tragic loss, or is it a stark reality of the abundance we live in every day? Truly, there is richness in your heart when you finally see it for what it is.