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sling bang boom
For months, I have tried to downplay my Hanson enthusiasm, "dial it down" as it were. I realized, it was all to avoid the concert aftermath--the sinking feeling that the show has left town, and you with a sense of emptiness. You sense you're even emptier than before it arrived. Then, I went to church. Is it sacrilegious to feel most connected to a Hanson concert experience while in church? My church has very little connection to an actual Hanson concert. And yet, unexplainably, I'm transported into the visceral memory of attending a concert--the pulsating heart, the freedom of spirit, the transcendent beauty of the moment. Coming off of a week of concert crash, I felt a swift wind blowing over the creeping blue dye that had begun to seep over my heart. Is it God or Hanson that I worship? Or maybe, just maybe God gave Hanson an ability to bring out a higher level of worship for Him? At this point, I must be breaking one of the first two commandments. What am I missing as my thoughts wander aimlessly? As I puzzled over my level of commitment to my faith and to Hanson, I wondered whether they were in conflict or in tune with each other. In a moment of penance, I returned to the pastor's focus for the day, the age-old story of David and Goliath. David, the shepherd boy, the extreme fairy-tale underdog kills Goliath, the Philistine giant, against all odds with a single smooth stone to the forehead, accurately flung from an unlikely slingshot. In that moment, it was like finding out that you've been living in a dorm named after a distant relative of your college crush--everything in your life is unwittingly tied to specific entity, if only you took the time to tease it out. Didn't just about the entire Hanson family participate in an old video remake of this famous Bible story? At the memory of Taylor as David, I simultaneously heightened my attention and also became even more distracted by my dilemma. Hanson or God? Did I have to choose? Weren't they supposedly working in tandem? All of the obvious parallels began to flood my mind. Hanson facing down their giant of a music label, Island Def Jam, without the full armor the studio execs wanted for them. This armor (producers, backups, marketing ploys) only held them back--weighing down the purity of their craft. What you don't read in the story of David is how immediately, in the next chapter, the boy is suddenly the target of jealous rage that leads to murderous rage. So maybe the Goliath episode is better suited as a metaphor for the success of "MMMBop." hmmm . . . In both cases, if you read the primary source account of each, the heroes' take on battles where success is not the primary goal--love of the process is. But David later comes to power--this time he doesn't fight, leaves others to fight the battle--and he takes the wife of another man, killing her husband to cover up his act. Despite and because of his complexity, he lives with the hellish consequences of his actions while at the same time is also blessed beyond imagination by becoming a pivotal ancestor to the main figure of the Bible. He passionately loses focus and regains it over and over again. So maybe I don't have to choose . . . my unruly passion for Hanson's music only competes with my passion for faith when I forget that it has the potential to compete. It's the struggle that counts, the neverending struggle. Rock on, Hanson! Rock on . . . | home | journals | dknstormy@aol.com | |