Multiple Meaning

"Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah"

This is a verse from one of my favorite songs, one which I sing to one or the other of my children almost every day: Hallelujah, written by Leonard Cohen and beautifully performed by Jeff Buckley. I think most of us can agree that a verse like this, a song like this, might mean different things to different people. It's meaning might even change over time, as the reality of our lives change. It certainly doesn't seem like a controversial assertion. It also wouldn't seem too controversial to assert that the meaning I get from this song might not be the same as the meaning that Leonard or Jeff intended when they wrote and/or sang it.

So why are these controversial ideas when it comes to the Constitution, the Quran, or the Bible. Why is the intent of the drafters, people who lived a long time ago, so damn important. I know that the drafter of one of the three is supposed to be God, but God left enough hints that this was just a starting point meant to fit the realities of a society that has been gone over a thousand years. The drafters of the others were people living a long time ago, people who owned things like slaves and organized and fought in things called "militias." All of them also left clues behind that they intended these documents to be interpreted by people according to teh context in which their lives were being lived.

Why must there be a clear wrong and right way to read these documents. Why can't we at least admit that there is room for disagreement, and then try to disagree in a civil and maybe even constructive manner? The Bible was written in a different language and has been translated a few different ways. The Constitution is not a comprehensive document, and wasn't meant to be.

Hallelujah might not be as important a document as these three, although music is not without importance, but the principle translates. Anything created by humans, even if only as conduits, is by definition imprecise and painted in shades of grey. It is also a reflection of its creators. To pretend it's not is to fail to understand the document in question, and also the people that wrote it, the people that read it and live it, and the problems that all of these people faced/face. To pretend that these documents have one meaning for all time is to fail to really use them to solve the problems we face today, and instead to use them to add to our problems.

The power of words, ultimately, comes in their adaptability ... their ability to touch all of us. "There's a blaze of light in every word, [i]t doesn't matter which you heard." We need to be open to seeing the light however we see it, and letting others do the same.
The holy or the broken Hallelujah"