Hi UltravioletU2 ! Here's what i found out about MW.
Mysterious Ways
I read this interpretation on another U2 mailing list.
?That reply lines up with most of what I've read and heard. I don't know about Bono's (mis)adventures, but I can add to the MW explanation (BTW, one doesn't have to be "experienced" to make the kind of general observations that Bono made... just thought that that should be noted). Before I go on to MW, I have to ask what everyone else thinks of Stokes' book. I've read most of it (I can't exactly remember what he said about MW -- perhaps someone could post that...), and although he has a good general idea on a number of songs, many of the literary/musical/cinematic references are completely lost on him... and, most disturbingly, he has NO CLUE about how to understand or evaluate the religious themes, which makes me think that his knowledge of Christianity is second-hand at best, pretty superficial, and not very well researched. Much of it reminded me of Flanagan's blowing-off of Bono's explanation of DGPFYCC: taking Bono's sophisticated, satirical critique of what many churches preach about God and turning it into something banal about McGuiness getting 'em cars, money, etc....
arghhhhh! That book drives me crazy sometimes -- it's so good and yet
it's soooooo bad too!
I think that there are indeed multiple layers of meaning in MW... it IS about both women's love and God?s love ? but it is tied to a specific situation: John the Baptist's imprisonment, temptation, and execution. Not all of the story is Biblical; you have to turn (as Bono did) to Oscar Wilde's "Salome" to get the references. Wilde repeatedly has his characters comment on Salome's fair skin, her skin so pale that she is "like a dove" (cf "So Cruel" -- also derrived from Wilde material). That image serves Bono well, since he knows that the Holy Spirit's normal iconographic representation is a dove. Of course, Wilde knew that as well and used the double-meaning of the reference to his advantage. The moon is very important in the play, representing omnious foreboding and an evil to come. It bathes everything in the play in its light, including John's prison cell (which, by the way, is an underground cistern: "Johnny take a walk with your sister the moon, let her pale light in to fill up your room; you've been living underground..." etc.). Anyway, in the play Salome (Herod's niece, if I remember correctly) WANTS John the Baptist in the worst way. She comes on to him, and the prophet is torn between his belief system and the obvious charms of this beautiful young woman who is throwing herself at him. He resists, and she gets back at him by having him executed (on the advice of her mother, the true villan of the play). She accomplishes this by dancing for Herod at a banquet (the famous "dance of the seven veils" -- a Middle-Eastern dance which ends w/ her totally naked... this is why the video was shot in a Middle-Eastern setting AND why they had belly dancers on the tour). Her uncle is so turned on by her performance that he says he'll give her anything she wants (consider the decadent pagan-Roman incestual implications in that part of the story). She asks for John's head on a sliver platter, and the story continues as in the Bible with only one twist. BTW, the execution by decapitation brings new meaning to "she'll be there when you hit the ground" -- think about it!!! Here's the "twist" (this is the Gothic fin-de-siecle expressionist part): in Wilde's play, when they bring John's severed head to Salome, she reaches out and lifts it. With blood running everywhere, she softly and passionately presses her lips to John's, kisses him, and then waxes poetic about "finally having him" ("the soft, sweet taste", etc. -- a very disturbing moment, to say the least!). What Bono does in MW is play the "desire for women" theme against the "love and devotion to God" theme. Salome is beautiful and enticing, AND the Holy Spirit is allowing the temptation, being in control of the whole situation. Bono is asking *why* God leads us down the paths he does, even when those paths seem difficult, tempting, or even life-threatening. In the end, though, we should trust that there's a reason for it all ("For God causes all things to work together for good..." -- scripture never says "for *only* good things will happen..."). We don't understand the mystery, and it's important to confront our doubts and fears, but we should ultimately trust that God must know what He's doing: "It's alright... she [the Holy Spirit] moves in mysterious ways."
This is Bono at his very best:
- Boldly and directly questioning God
- Expressing faith in God's ultimate plan: "one day you'll look back and you'll see" (from that "other side" where it will all make sense, hopefully),
AND
- Giving us a surface veneer of sexually-charged man/woman stuff in the context of an important literary work.
Quite remarkable, and infinitely more rich than Stokes (or I) could even begin to fathom. I'm sure there's even more buried in there, if we had an eternity to dig... Hope this helps someone out there today...
ITNOL,
Tarheel Tim
These interpretations are from
http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d4jonas/U2MoL/AB/mystways.shtml
?The story in Mt 14.3-11 is about the death of St. John the Baptist. St. John is known as Jokanaan in Oscar Wilde's play, and simply as Johnny in U2's version. The opening line of Mysterious Ways introduces us not only to Johnny, but to the moon. The moon plays a prominent role in Wilde's Salome. This detail is given only as minor evidence of the links between the works of U2 and Wilde. Now, the "she" that is referred to in the song's title, verses, and choruses, is Salome, daughter of Herodias, princess of Judea. In the biblical story, and the play, Herodias' husband, Herod, promises Salome anything if she will dance for him. Salome dances, and then demands St. John's head on a platter. A quick summary of points connecting U2 with Wilde:
1. The "underground" that Johnny lives in is representative of the cistern in which he was kept in Salome.
2. Johnny running away from what he doesn't understand, love, echoes Jokanaan's refusal of Salome's advances in Wilde's play.
In concert, Bono will occasionally substitute "She's the wave / She turns the tide" with "She wants you / you don't know why." The change in these lines takes us back to number 2. I could go on and do a line by line analysis, but that could drag on a bit. Rather, go out and purchase the $1.99 Modern Library/Random House edition of Salome. All of your answers can be found between its covers. (Rory Blyth
blythr@reed.edu [1998-12-13])?
Tack on the title and the lyrics of one of U2?s B-Sides from Achtung Baby - Salome
?The lyrics, while referring to a biblical story, seem inspired from Oscar Wilde's play Salome. In Wilde's play, Salome is the stepdaughter of King Herod. John the Baptist has spurned her physical love for spiritual purity. Later, Herod bids her dance the dance of the seven veils for which he promises anything - even half his kingdom. She agrees and dances. After dancing, she wishes for John the Baptist's head. Herod reluctantly accedes but then has her executed as well. The song itself details King Herod's bid for Salome to dance. The song, in and of itself, does little to realize the fuller meaning of Salome, which perhaps contributed to its mere B-side status. IMO, the fuller meaning of Salome is that we cannot deny the spirit or the body, even when two seem contradictary. As Bono is fond of saying these days contradiction is balance. I'd add U2 has done a wonderful musical job saddling the horses of love and lust - Bono has succeeded in his goal to make rock with it's feet on the dance floor and its head in the clouds. FrankLBaum (franklbaum@aol.com) [before 1998-02-20]?
Tack on the possible connection of the title of another of U2?s B-sides from Achtung Baby ? Lady With A Spinning Head
Tack on the fact that nearly every live performance of Mysterious Ways during the ZOOTV Tour included a performance of a live belly dancer (The Edge?s future wife !)
?I believe the song is about the holy spirit for a number of different reasons. Firstly there is a famous bible quote "the Holy Spirit moves in mysterious ways", hence the name of the song. Secondly in the final chorus, the lyrics change from "she movies in mysterous ways" to "spirit move s in mysterious ways". Thirdly, the quote "if you wanna kiss the sky better learn how to kneel" quite obviously refers to praying (kneeling) to go to heaven (Kissing the sky). Fourthly, a moon can't "talk about the things you can't explain" can't "see the man inside the child" and can't "be there when you hit the ground", but the Holy Spirit can. (Jonathan Lowe
jlowe@gizmo.maths.monash.edu.au [1998-11-01])
Wow, that's great! Thank you, never thought about it that way! 
. Maybe he thinks an aunt of someone he knows is awkward and uncomfortable and boring...hope that aunt doesn't hear the song then. 
Maybe he's comparing Miami as a place that he has automatically taken in as immediate family as say, a mother (My Mammy ). The city is quite endearing as a mother is to a child. And that's opposed, or rather compared to an aunt who isn't normally considered as such. It might not be at all to say aunts, or his aunt in particular, is boring.
referring to artificiality or anything fake (like Icarus' wings) having the freedom these days to express itself without being condemned? Am I making any sense? Am I answering my own question? 
I'm lost. 
And don't worry about reading too far into it. I think we all do that. 
