Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story

by Bono

“The elephant in the room” is a phrase I enjoy, having at different times been either elephant or room. We can lose ourselves in situations or conversations and miss the obvious. We’re looking for someone to save us or a solution to a problem, and they’re right in front of us hiding in plain sight. Hanging in our house is a wall-sized piece of art by the filmmaker Wim Wenders. The Road to Emmaus is a recent photograph of that road, just outside Jerusalem, where close friends of Jesus are said to have walked with him, without knowing it. A couple of days after his crucifixion. There’s a rumor he’s alive and no one can find the body. His friends are confused, grief-stricken, terrified, and oblivious to the identity of this stranger until the moment when he says goodbye. Now they wake up to the possibility that the very heart of their faith has been beating loudly at their side. If only they’d had eyes to see. I have taken flights where the person seated next to me, the person I was dodging having a conversation with, turned out to hold a valuable piece of the puzzle of my life that I would be lost without. When you’re open, a hitchhiker—a “randomer,” as my daughter Eve calls them—can become an angel. When you’re least expecting one. And not just people. Places, too, can spark a rare connection that is initially hidden.