Everyday Encounter...
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I don't listen to the radio in the car at the moment. It's normally audio books. Sometimes I get in the car and the radio is on though. I have no idea how my car radio picks stations, but somehow it's been "Capital" recently. Anyway, I jumped in the car and this version of this song was playing: As I listened to it I imagined it was blending the story of Jesus with someone absorbed in a "night out" culture.
When I got home I decided to look up the lyrics and see if there was an acoustic version I might appreciate more musically. Here's what I found:
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Ever have one of those moments where you start listening to a song and you kind of recognise the voice but it just doesn't quite fit with the music you're hearing?
My friend Sarah introduced me to the Arctic Monkeys way back when she got their first album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" before they properly made it big. And then I kept up with them into the second album, but after that they drifted off my radar. Coming back into listening in 2022 with "The Car" I realised I'd missed a lot. There was a whole musical journey that had gone on in the four albums in between! The voice was the same, but the rest of it left me thinking that I ain't quite where I think I am! I've set out to start with music rather than themes, but sometimes there are patterns in the things we hear and observe. Sometimes because we're predictable in what we listen to, and sometimes it's because we're more aware of what we need to be aware of.... The more you think about yellow cars, the more you see!
This is another song about what's going on around us, and not being able to avoid it. We shouldn't try and avoid it all. This song is a little different though. "You're always trying to see yourself through the eyes of someone else" There's a degree of pressure on us when we do that.
To “hold a mirror up to" is a phrase meaning “to take a look at oneself objectively to examine or reflect on things (issues) stemming from the reality of reflection; to reveal to someone about the way they look (differently) to the rest of the world (so that they can reflect upon themselves); expose, show up, bring to light (some (unpleasant) aspects to oneself)”. Community done badly holds up images of the ideal alongside the mirror and tells us all the ways we don't measure up. I am so blissfully unaware of everything... unless it affects me directly or flashes up on my social media feed.
They say that ignorance is bliss.
Sometimes we'd rather close our eyes and have everything go away. Perhaps if we sleep things will be better when we wake. Someone will have magically fixed the problem. I guess this song just draws together the thoughts that I've already had with "Bridge over troubled water" and "Eyes of a child". Now this is something I wrestle with a lot as I do assemblies in schools and work with young people. I'm acutely aware of the world that I have inherited from my elders, the good, the bad and the ugly of it. And I'm increasingly deliberate in not wanting to just pass the buck of responsibility for changing it to those I work with. |
Every-Day EncounterIf you'd rather listen and come to your own conclusions about the eclectic mix of songs I worked through in Lent 2023, here's the Spotify Playlist! Archives
September 2023
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