The Hounds of Winter
Howling in the wind
I walk through the day
My coat around my ears
I look for my companion
I have to dry my tears
It seems that she’s gone
Leaving me too soon
I’m as dark as December
I’m as cold as the Man in the Moon -Sting Mercury Falling (1996).

One of my favorites from Mercury Falling by Sting. As I write this evening, I can hear the howling winds hit the house. Big roaring gusts. The furnace does not seem to shut off as it tries to keep the cold air at bay leaking through the spaces in our creaky old windows. I’ve been hearing this song in my head on an endless loop since 1600 CST. The dogs, my wife, and I all shiver as each blustery gust… …sounds like a shrieking ghost coming to drag our corpses to the underworld…. A dark tome of sadness… The extinguishing of life giving heat in the harsh and bleak landscape of the Midwest during winter… a winter that is still weeks away…

Our Christmas tree is up, stockings are hung on our mantle, and gifts already sit underneath the tree. My wife is the saint of Christmas. She adores this holiday, the Hallmark movies, baking, the whole nine and one half yards of it. I’m a scrooge, a grinch, or a hound of winter when it comes to the holidays. I see the bleakness of our world before I see the hope and light. Children with food insecurity, homeless families, war over religious ideals (not worth fighting over,) and the never-ending commercialization of gifts only the wealthy can afford. How can we ignore that pain and suffering whilst celebrating in our homes without a care for the pain others may suffer??? The hounds petrify me… …with their piercing cold gaze…

A season for joy
A season for sorrow
Where she’s gone
I will surely, surely follow
She brightened my day
She warmed the coldest night
The Hounds of Winter
They got me in their sights (Verse 3)

Replace the her in Sting’s eloquent prose with a “they.” Imagine that “they” as a child, a homeless family, veteran, or a poor soul in the clutches of madness caused by mental illness. These are the demons that nights like these in the hounds of winter that hunt me down. How can we ignore that darkness, that sadness, and celebrate? Where is the economic, medical, or humanistic justice? How does one ignore the hounds of winter sent to hunt down the weak or oppressed? Welcome to the darkness of this one’s empathy? The struggle of hypocrisy within our species… a hypocrisy with crosshairs aimed at my heart… …where is our kindness???

I still see her face
As beautiful as day
It’s easy to remember
Remember my love that way (Chorus)

Hope… everlasting… memories of the positive. The feeling of love and warmth. One’s embrace. Giving more than receiving is the message keeping the hounds just out of reach. The light and symmetry of perfectly designed tree (All my wife’s doing.) The smell of cookies, the comfort of a dog on one’s lap, or a gentle fire in one’s fireplace… This ever present light of hope… All fighting against the howling bitter winds of winter… Grasp onto this metaphor to stay afloat, but don’t forget about those unfortunate souls still out there… Remember them… Give for them… Love them… Repel the hounds of winter for them… Overcome that fear… that sadness… that emptiness… the vacuum between the howls of the wind… …memories …everlasting …hope

Thank you Sting… as the record spins around…