It seems that the mummy metaphor and associated symbolisms are simply a vehicle.
Naturally the song works as the “The Ballad of the Mummy and the Anthropologist”, where the female is cursed, used up, and destroyed by her love for the male.
But as I listen to this song, I feel something much different than the lament of the feminist.
I feel the lament of all humanity, all of us, who are cursed by the horrible reality of losing the people that we love.
The mummy then, is a man whose heart is lifeless because he has suffered too many deep losses. The mummy’s tattered rags symbolize the life-events that have torn his spirit apart.
After a long time (thousands of years symbol) the mummy encounters the beautiful anthropologist and falls in love with her, awakening his heart once again to love.
And he must love her in order to live.
But in the act of loving this person, the mummy has opened himself up again for loss.
With her death, she becomes one more tattered rag of emotional loss and psychological trauma that the mummy must drag behind him.
The curse then is that, through no fault of our own, we may lose the very people that we love most dearly, and we cannot afford not to love them, we cannot turn away from the immense invitation of divine love.
It seems that the mummy metaphor and associated symbolisms are simply a vehicle.
Naturally the song works as the “The Ballad of the Mummy and the Anthropologist”, where the female is cursed, used up, and destroyed by her love for the male.
But as I listen to this song, I feel something much different than the lament of the feminist.
I feel the lament of all humanity, all of us, who are cursed by the horrible reality of losing the people that we love.
The mummy then, is a man whose heart is lifeless because he has suffered too many deep losses. The mummy’s tattered rags symbolize the life-events that have torn his spirit apart.
After a long time (thousands of years symbol) the mummy encounters the beautiful anthropologist and falls in love with her, awakening his heart once again to love.
And he must love her in order to live.
But in the act of loving this person, the mummy has opened himself up again for loss.
With her death, she becomes one more tattered rag of emotional loss and psychological trauma that the mummy must drag behind him.
The curse then is that, through no fault of our own, we may lose the very people that we love most dearly, and we cannot afford not to love them, we cannot turn away from the immense invitation of divine love.
Indeed it is a real gem of a song.