Getting the Songs

Questions will always be with us. Answers are another thing. The basis for answers will be there, not always seen. Not always put together with other bits and pieces to form an answer. It takes time to do this. Time to understand. Time to feel. Time to sense meaning. To let the meaning build up, swirl maybe, then turn and build again. Will that meaning amount to anything? Will it be definitive? Help us understand both the question and its answer?

Songs. Music. Art. Performance. Many times their convergence entertains; sometimes not.

I have trouble understanding modern songs. Can’t catch the words; poor enunciation maybe, but the phrases don’t come through clear enough to hold meaning. Connections are not made complete. Elusive. Music seems to haunt awareness, but no clarity.

Then something happens. A telling moment shared by someone and songs pour from many sources and their meaning is clear. A connection. A pathos that touches the tip of my soul. And a collection of like-minded souls emerges from the mist. There is shared meaning. There is growth of self knowing within a group.

Maybe the modern songs do mean something?

Recently a young fellow, probably 14 or 15 years of age, shared his life long experience with bullying in public schools. He is/was in middle school and his struggle was so incessant he nearly committed suicide. He shared his anguish on a You Tube video. Flash cards contained his story, flipped to our gaze in short phrases. He came so close to ending his life because it was unbearable. He was taunted on the streets, in his neighborhood, at his church, and of course in the halls and classrooms of his schools; for years and years.

But he hung on and shared that conclusion with the unknown You Tube public.

The response has been swift. Overwhelming, really. Songs have been written and performed, again over You Tube. The messages of acceptance are clear. The embrace of this young soul is palpable, electronic but real. The tears are real. The emotions riveting.

He is gay. Something he realized about himself long ago before he was 10 years old. He knew he was gay as he came of age and passed through puberty. He did this alone, of course, as must we all. But family came around and nurtured him through this unsettling period. Their judgment did not shoot him down. They learned from him. He learned from them. Together they realized what was natural and real. He is becoming whole. He is becoming an adult. He will survive.

Those that argue with him, those who bully him, say much about their ignorance. So very much.

When will churches get this? When will schools get this? When will ideologues get this?

Meanwhile we live on. We survive. One day at a time. With or without the blessings of others.

The songs make this clear. They communicate personal truths. That’s good. Very good. I get it now.

December 7. 2011

PS: Over 5 million You Tube hits have now been registered to this young man’s initial video; that’s in less than one week. Some people get it. Wow!