Dare You to Move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before
- Dare You to Move
Hello Old Friends
Stars
Stars looking at a planet, watching entropy and pain
And maybe start to wonder
How the chaos in our lives could pass as sane
I’ve been thinking about the meaning of resistance
Of a hope beyond my own
And suddenly the infinite and penitent begin to look like home
–Stars
First of all, what can you say about a rock group that can get words like “entropy” and “penitent” in the same verse? Wow! 😛
The chorus talks about everyone being so lonely, but when the author looks at the stars he sees “someone else”. I suppose that this could be any ‘higher power’ out there, but anyone from a Christian viewpoint can see that what is out there speaks of a true Creator. Really anyone should be able to do that. This context helps us understand the 2nd stanza here.
How often do we resist what is the best for us? I have a toddler, and he can be quite stubborn – even when I’m trying to do something for him. But if he has it in his head that things aren’t going just right, then watch out! Looking beyond ourselves so often lifts us up out of the rubble we muck around in and helps us to get up and walk with a little dignity.
I get excited just thinking about these lyrics. How many times have we heard the same message, but this comes across so fresh! If only I could write with such tightness and imagery.
*sigh*
That is the process though. We keep on keepin’ on, looking at the stars.
Beautiful Letdown
I mention “writing” in the title of this blog. I have an interest in writing and have been working on improving my skill in that craft. I was thinking about how hard it can be to get the message you want across in an artful, meaningful way that doesn’t come across as hitting people over the head with it.
I think songwriting may be one of the hardest things to write well, because you have to combine the lyrics with good music and get your heart poured into about 3 1/2 minutes of song. I want to look a little bit at the lyrics of Switchfoot, since I was recently at their concert (see below). These guys are amazing in what they pack into their songs.
We are a beautiful letdown
Painfully uncool
The church of the dropouts
The losers, the sinners, the failures, and the fools
What a beautiful letdown
Are we salt in the wound
Hey, let us sing one true tune
This is a stanza from The Beautiful Letdown. This speaks so much in such few words. (Of course, we’re looking out of them out of complete context, which is always important.) As the kingdom of God, we have a dual nature of being redeemed creatures that are beautiful to our Creator, but we are sinners who aren’t able to live up to our high calling. I often hear it said that we put the nails in the hands of Jesus each time we sin. That’s hard to get across in a song, but “are we salt in the wound” just sums it up in an image we can all relate to. We’ve all fallen flat in our attempts to succeed, to be holy, or just to try and make it through the day without totally blowing it. It is a paradox that God sees us beautiful in all the ways we let Him down. But the wonderful thing for us is, we can still pick ourselves out of the dust and lend our voices to the “one true tune”.
Acoustically Challenged
“What’s that? Speak up!”
I feel like that this morning. I went to the Switchfoot concert last night. It was a fun and interesting time. My wife was supposed to go with me, but was sick. Also a friend ended up needing a ride for their kids going. So I ended up accompanying 3 middle-school aged kids. They did well for their first rock concert.
The title of this post refers to my hearing and the setting of the concert as well. It was in Reed Gym, and any gym is horrible for acoustics. We also got there late, and ended up WAAAAY up in the bleachers. We heard the concert better on the echo than the first time, it seemed like. Unfortunately the sound aspect wasn’t the best it could be. We got some good bass though. I think my teeth are still rattling…
The opening act was a group called Lovedrug. Meh. Their songs didn’t have much variety, and the lead singer seems to copy Dave Matthews to a point – mostly making his singing unintelligible by trying to do a slight falsetto. All four of us: thumbs down.
Switchfoot was a different story. It was obvious they were veteran craftsmen considering their music and showmanship. Even despite the lead singer going to jump up on the drum platform and instead tripping and crashing into the drumset! Professional as ever, both he and the drummer kept going – but the roadies rushed out between songs to make sure everyone/thing was OK!
The show was very entertaining, despite the poor location. I think the highlight was during the song “Gone“, when the keyboardist slipped onto the drumset and the drummer was banging away on a kid’s sized set. Right on! The four of us: thumbs up!
I happened to overhear someone in the line before the concert asking, “Are they a Christian band?” As if that was a bad thing. Unfortunately, I didn’t pick up the response. But I think I will do a little consideration of some of their lyrics over next week, to see what can be said in artistic ways to get a point across to people.
To Blog or Not to Blog
Eight posts now. Yippee! I’ve done enough to need my archive. I guess that is more than a lot of people do.
I hope that I will have a little more targeted purpose over time. But this is a new venture, so I’m feeling the whole thing out.
If any blog-savvy folks want to leave a suggestion about what they’d like to see, or hints, I’d sure take it. Otherwise I’ll keep fumbling around here until I find my rhythm.
Speaking of rhythm, I’ll be going to Switchfoot tonight at Idaho State University. Rock on! I’ll let you know if I have any hearing left tomorrow.