Finally Understanding Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire

Tonight, while looking at this month's National Geographic magazine's cover story: "Indonesia's Ring of Fire — Volcano Gods" I made a sudden realization about Ring of Fire, by June Carter and so famously performed by Johnny Cash. June wrote the song about Johnny... She was writing about his emotional depth. About his burning love and hate... His burning conflict within. She fell into it. And was trapped by it. She wanted to be free, but had found herself falling "down down down, and the flames went higher"...

She gave that song to Johnny while he was trying desperately to get her back into his life, and to get his life back. Johnny had himself fallen into his own "ring of fire". He had fallen into himself, into the depths of a depression only made worse by his craft, the plumbing of his heart for exploitation. He was an artist. And he suffered for his art. He was loved, and those who loved him, suffered for his suffering.

When Johnny read the poem that June had written about him, my guess is that he quickly understood its meaning. It was about him. It was about his problems, and his passion for life, and his emotional depth. It was about the black hole that a star can become when it has done as Neil Young so famously recommended, yet refused to try: "It's better to burn out than to fade away"

But what Johnny Cash has shown us is that, though we may all come from stars, and the destiny of the powerful star is a black hole, that we humans are not necessarily destined for the same destructive fate. Johnny Cash, like the phoenix, rose from his own ashes. When June wrote about the end of the passionate life of a star that had sucked her in, she evoked the strongest of human magic: resurrection. Johnny Cash almost literally came back from the dead, and some of the greatest moments of his career followed.

What I realize from this lesson is one of those strangely moralistic lessons that only Johnny Cash could teach me. I have long resisted the power of his "Christian Messages", and the "Christian Message" in general. I cannot help but conclude from not only his works but from his life, that we can all be Lazarus. We all have the power to raise the dead, especially ourselves.

This is a message that resonates strongly in me. On a personal level I have experienced resurrection every day of my life. Particularly on those days when I thought I was completely out of energy at 6 PM but still somehow stayed up until 3 AM. I have collapsed in on myself and come back from the dead doubtlessly more times than I could be aware of. Johnny Cash came back from his own personal long-time death. He came back kicking and screaming, and went right for the tank. And he walked out of Folsom Prison a hero.

Brian Wilson recently re-awoke, with a little help from his friends and loved ones. We all can re-awake from the nightmares we have been living in, the near death experiences we have accepted as reality. We can take our country back, take our planet back, and take our lives back, for the good of all. And then we can dance.