Question: Ever been reminded of the power of music to remind you we are connected? 

Context: Recently a buddy of mine who amazes me with his ability to keep abreast of new talks/podcasts/lectures, etc. on YouTube sent me a link to a writer I admire. Paul Kingsnorth was speaking in Wisconsin on the “The Blizzard of the World.” You may be thinking, “So what? Who cares?” Well, it’s that phrase. “The Blizzard of the World” is a line from a song from one of my favorite lyricists, Leonard Cohen. In Cohen’s song, “The Future” (you may know the song from the soundtrack to Oliver Stone’s film Natural Born Killers). The lines that Kingsnorth borrowed from Cohen’s song “The Future” go like this:

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St. Paul
I’ve seen the future, brother
It is murder

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won’t be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold and it has overturned the order of the soul

Connection to Us: I don’t watch much, if any, TV. When I do have a hankering for a movie or play, I will stream it on my computer or, if a good one is in town, go to a play/show with my wife. I love seeing plays done well. I remember seeing Of Mice and Men done on stage and it affected me profoundly. I feel the same about Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Simply profound. Anyway, when Greg sent me that video of Kingsnorth speaking in Wisconsin, I was touched. And I was reminded. Because even though he (Kingsnorth) spoke on topics fraught with peril, issues dividing the West like an existential zipper, when he referenced Cohen’s “The Future,” you could feel the tension in the room exit with a collective Whoosh!

That’s the power of music. Even in our divided states of America, the power of song is a unifier whereby we reconnect with our humanity. 

When I read the news online, I am grieved on multiple levels, probably just as you are. First, there’s a loss of civility. Second, there’s a loss of critical thinking; Third, there’s a jettisoning of history. Fourth, there is a shocking vitriol for the silencing of the right to speak freely. The list could continue for paragraphs. But these, to put it simply, do not bode well for a healthy republic. 

Encouragement: As many of us go to our families over the next day or so, may you, too, be encouraged that there is a music that unites us all. We are more alike than we are different, I contend. We are sinners, yes; we are in need of redemption, yes; we are often cruel to one another, yes. But we are designed for community, for fellowship, for one another and for God. 

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, ESV). May this season not be limited to a mere day of thanksgiving but rather penetrate our souls such that we know why we should be grateful and to whom. God can use Cohen songs, Kingsnorth lectures, my Chaplain Daily Touchpoints, but most certainly his Word. Happy Thanksgiving.