Category: Just My Opinion

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Withholding

Have you ever had a falling out with someone in your life?  Have you parted ways with the possibility of never speaking to them or seeing them again?  The fault may be yours, it may be theirs, or (most likely) the blame could be shared.

I have.

And then, later on, I decided I was wrong in so many ways and it was ridiculous that we weren’t friends anymore.  I called to apologize and say what an idiot I had been and could they please forgive me.  But, that wasn’t enough.  They couldn’t forgive.  They weren’t even interested in talking about the situation or the relationship.

This was painful.

Now it has been seven years.  This seems crazy.  We were like best friends!  I sent a little note the other day and got no response.  It’s possible they didn’t get it, but more likely they feel the same way they did years ago.

At what point is it too late?  What constitutes the line that, after you cross, you can never go back?  You see it all the time: husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, mothers and daughters, friends.  Why can’t the offenses be overcome?

Jesus said it’s in my best interest to forgive:

Matthew 6:14-16
14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matthew 18:20-22
21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Why is it so hard?  What’s going through people’s hearts and heads when they withhold forgiveness?  Especially when someone asks for it.

The hardest part of my situation is that I miss the friendship.  I miss the laughter, the crying, the boring, the crazy times.  Maybe they feel this is the price I must pay for my offenses.  But I still hold out hope that the forgiveness I long for won’t be withheld forever.

And, even more urgent: Can I somehow give forgiveness when it’s deserved and even when it’s undeserved?

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Unopened

“Another issue is the fact we don’t have many record stores left. The experience we all grew up with of spending the afternoon browsing music in a record store, doesn’t exist anymore. So let’s wake up. Yeah, sales are down. But how many stores do we have? I wouldn’t be surprised if some smart young business person finds a way to open 25 or 30 wildly successful new CD stores. Because there is an audience for them.” – Scott Borchetta, President/CEO Big Machine Records, Think Tank: A Music Row Special Report, August 2007

Record/CD stores drove me crazy.  Because I love music, I always wanted to go to them (when they existed) and check out the selection.  But, it never failed, I left disappointed.  Maybe it was cooler before when vinyl was the thing – at least you could see real cover art.  But, looking through a bunch of CD cases to see what was new?  You could listen to a few CDs through greasy headphones that had been on who-knows-who’s head before you and usually never the one you wanted. 

Don’t get me wrong, I liked the idea of the record store, but not much more. 

Even when the stores started to get digital sampling stations where you scanned the barcode and heard the music, it was always a few seconds and, knowing the record company it was the intro or instrumental section, not anything helpful like the chorus (this still drives me crazy on the iTunes store – think about what you want people to hear!!).

The one exception to this was Blockbuster Music’s (remember?) short-lived program to let people listen to any CD in the store.  They opened the package for you and you listened and then they sealed it back up in their own plastic.  This was amazing!  I would go up almost every night and listen to all kinds of albums.  I discovered David Wilcox and listened to his entire catalog.  I bought several of his CDs.   I always went back to the rack, though and bought the unopened copy.  Thus, this was the fatal flaw in Blockbuster’s strategy: people listened and then didn’t buy.

People talk about the “scene” at record stores.  But, as a kid (and even an adult) breaking into that scene can be quite intimidating.  But most of the music stores I knew were chains where the “scene” never existed.

What kills me about Scott Borchetta’s quote above is that it is so off-the-mark.  So many people running record companies are so out of touch.  It has been this way and continues.  When will the new generation of leaders take over the music business with new ideas and exciting visions?  When will they choose to make music rather than computers and software?

So, I’m all for retail music stores and digital music stores.  Just don’t make people walk or surf into a store and leave without the experience of amazing music.  If we do, the music and  the wallets will stay unopened.

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Music Matters

IPods now have video, games, audio books and podcasts. Will iPods always be about the music?
Who knows? But it’s hard to imagine that music is not the epicenter of the iPod, for a long, long, long, long, long time.  I was very lucky to grow up in a time when music really mattered.  It wasn’t just something in the background; it really mattered to a generation of kids growing up. It really changed the world. I think that music faded in importance for a while, and the iPod has helped to bring music back into people’s lives in a really meaningful way. Music is so deep within all of us, but it’s easy to go for a day or a week or a month or a year without really listening to music. And the iPod has changed that for tens of millions of people, and that makes me really happy, because I think music is good for the soul. – Steve Jobs, Newsweek 2003

Music has taken a backseat in today’s culture.  Some would say it’s been relegated to the trunk rather than the backseat.  The Industry has so contained it and controlled it, that it has become safe, predictable, and gives you a shadow of the emotional impact it used to.  Now I’m not one to keep harkening back to the “glory days” when everything was better, but these are not the days of a musical renaissance.  We need them now more than ever!  Music can do things no other art form can: penetrate a place in people that words can’t do alone.  This is true for all genres and stripes of music:  Rock, Pop, Country, Gospel, etc., etc., etc.

It’s interesting how computers and computer companies get all the buzz in society today.  The quote from Steve Jobs above is so ironic, because he is probably the biggest “rock star” in the world today.  What used to define rock musicians – cutting edge, mystery, impact – now are best seen in a corporate CEO.  That’s weird.  But, as you can see from his quote, he understands what makes culture click and he’s used some of the elements of the power of music to thrust Apple’s products into the cultural consciousness.

The only problem with this (and believe me I’m into Macs:) is that we’re now celebrating the method of delivery instead of what’s being delivered.  That’s like being so excited about the envelope but just ho-hum about the check inside it.  How crazy would that be?  Instead of focusing intently on the quality and power of the artists, songs, musicianship, we’re focused on the type of computer, or iPhone, or iTunes, or streaming.  These things are fun to talk about if you’re interested in computers, but they are not as important as the art being delivered.  That’s the product that can change hearts and change the world.

So, may there be a new renaissance: a renaissance of music, a renaissance of making the important things important again.

 (And it goes not just for music, but, as I wrote last week, the American Church is doing the same things by stressing production and venue over the content of services and the spiritual experiences of people.  How can the setting and the method of delivery be more important than what you’re delivering?)

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Hate to Stop the Music

I know I run the risk of sounding like Madonna (thanks, Norah!) Rihanna with a title like this (I think her’s was “Please Don’t Stop the Music”).  But I’m forging ahead anyway – you can’t copyright a title :).

A couple weeks ago I was coming into work and, like a lot of New Yorkers, I had my earphones in taking in some tunes.  (At a minimum, most New Yorkers are listening to an iPod and reading a book.  There are many variations on this.)  As I got in the elevator I noticed the woman beside me was taking out her earphones as I was.  There was actually a sense of disappointment in the air; like someone had injected a little reality.  She laughed a little when I remarked at how lame it was to stop the music – especially when it’s good.

I saw a commercial lately that illustrated just this.  The ad shows a young guy with tattoos and earrings rocking out to some headbanger tunes right up until he sits at his desk, removes the earphones, and the image changes to him as conservative businessman in a suit.

Something about music takes us out of reality and into an amazing universe created by the artist.  I believe this is a good thing.

Last summer Olivia and I drove to New York City from Nashville several times (15-16 hours).  The last time we made the trip, we bought the Sara Bareilles album, Little Voice, and played it relentlessly: there and back and while we were driving around the City.  I can’t tell you how crazy it is for one of those songs to come up on shuffle now and be taken back exactly to how I felt on that trip.  If I close my eyes I am in the car driving over the Queensboro bridge in our Honda Fit with the windows rolled down.

How does music do that?  More importantly, how can I make music that affects people like that?

Does music do this for you?

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Justice, Obama, and the Harlem River

I know there are lots of different people with different views that read this blog. I have my friends from the Church who, by and large, are conservative. I have my music friends who are mostly liberal. I even know some who cherry pick from one side or the other. If you know me, you know that I lean conservative and this is mostly on social issues. I’ve lived in overwhelmingly liberal communities a lot, so I’ve learned to just keep quiet and nod when politics comes up. This is a shame, but I know as soon as I express my support for certain positions that I will not just get a disagreement from some liberal friends, but a moral judgment that could threaten their opinion of me as a person. The same goes for select conservative brethren. If, by some chance, I happen to feel that the Left has some insight on a particular issue (I can’t think of one now:) then I am lambasted as not holding to the straight and narrow.

So it is with this disclaimer that I offer you the following words…

A few months ago I was taking a walk along the Harlem River in Manhattan. If you don’t know the geography of New York City, there are several rivers/bodies of water that meet here: Hudson, Harlem, East, Long Island Sound, and, of course, the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve been taking walks and spending time praying as I explore the City and this particular day I felt God say “Pray for justice.” Now, there are those that pray for justice all the time and it is burden on their hearts. Let’s just say it’s not one of my regular prayer topics. So I began to pray in the Spirit for justice; justice in the City, in the Nation, and justice in the lives of my friends and family. As I finished, the Lord began to speak to me. He said that the election of Obama as president is a river of justice for African-Americans. Just as the Harlem River cuts through the rocky land, justice cut through the rock of hard hearts that brought oppression to an entire race and is now bringing about righteousness.

You have to believe me when I say I wasn’t really pursuing this revelation. It was if the Lord wanted to reveal it to me for some reason I’m still not aware of. I am just overwhelmed that He would choose to speak to me at all.

Considering my views and the fact I voted for John McCain, I began to ask God how this could be with Obama’s positions, particularly on abortion. What about justice for the millions of unborn babies that never see life? He answered that I, as a human, could not see justice the way He sees it. We tend to only focus on one thing, one issue at the detriment to all the rest. He can bring about His purpose in as many streams as I could imagine and beyond. He showed me that there was justice coming related to abortion and it would be a wide, mighty river (think of the Mississippi). And not just for abortion and racial injustice, but for all the wrongs that require His ability to make them right. The streams of righteousness are flowing strongly through all the Earth.

The thing all of these “rivers of justice” have in common is that they flow to one place: the ocean. Remember that I said that in New York City many rivers/bodies of water flow into the Atlantic? When I saw that they were metaphors for justice, I asked the Lord if the ocean was a place of judgment or mercy. He conveyed that it could be either. The atrocities committed are more than deserving of judgment, but because of Jesus, because of His sacrifice, the rivers flow together into an ocean of mercy. This mercy stretches as far as we can see like the horizon line on the water that just keeps going. The rivers flow into Him – the true ocean of mercy.

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