lenten journal: soul music
When I asked for words to ponder during Lent, one friend offered two: soul music.
As I started thinking about it, I began to think of songs, though not necessarily Motown. I began to think of songs that have spoken to me in recent times--some old, some new. Tonight, then, I offer a Lenten soundtrack of sorts. The first is from Kris Kristofferson: "Feeling Mortal." The chorus says,
God Almighty here I am am I where I ought to be I’ve begun to soon descend like the sun into the sea and I thank my lucky stars from here to eternity for the artist that you are and the man you made of me
The next is from Sarah Jarosz and it's a cover of a Tom Waits song called "Come On Up to the House."
well the moon is broken and the sky is cracked come on up to the house the only things that you can see is all that you lack come on up to the house
all your cryin don't do no good
come on up to the house
come down off the cross
we can use the wood
come on up to the house
Peter Mayer is a singer-songwriter whom I have come to appreciate in recent years, though he has been around for awhile. His song "Holy Now" is a call to look at life in wonder.
when holy water was rare at best it barely wet my fingertips but now I have to hold my breath like I m swimming in a sea of it it used to be a world half there heaven s second rate hand-me-down but I walk it with a reverent air cause everything is holy now
Mavis Staples is a prophet of a singer, and this song speaks of the love that will not let us go: "You Are Not Alone."
a broken home, a broken heart isolated and afraid open up this is a raid I wanna get it through to you you're not alone
Our closing hymn is a song Paul Simon wrote in the mid-seventies, and yet it sings as though it were written yesterday. Here is "American Tune."
I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered I don’t have a friend who feels at ease I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered or driven to its knees oh, but it’s all right, it’s all right for lived so well so long still, when I think of the road we’re traveling on I wonder what went wrong I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong
Sing to the night, my friends. We don't sing alone.
Peace,
Milton
