Repost: "Music Rambling"

Today, despite knowing that it was probably a fool’s errand, upon finding out that someone had hidden a copy of Switchfoot’s upcoming single “Mess of Me” in a book in San Antonio’s Central Library (about 30 minutes away from my house), I drove there to check for it. Just, you know, in case. I also figured I could make the trip not a wasted trip by finally getting myself a library card – which I haven’t had in years if you don’t count the fact that my student ID in college was essentially a library card for the university library system.

Anyway, the CD was hidden in a copy of The Dialogues of Plato. So when I got to the library, I went up to the help desk and asked where I could find it – this library is huge, so even knowing where in the Dewey Decimal system the book is wouldn’t help me find it (at least not in a timely manner). I asked the older gentleman behind the desk where I could find the book, and he said “You’re the second person to ask for that book in the last hour.”

I said something along the lines of “darn it, it’ll be gone!” and he asked if it was for a class. I explained about the CD being hidden in the book and he was like “oh, so you’re not here to check out and read Plato’s Dialogues, then.” I said no, and he said I didn’t “look like someone who was into philosophy.”
At which point I reached into my purse, pulled out my copy of Works of Love by Kierkegaard and said “Actually, I’m reading this right now, and the other book in my bag is essays by CS Lewis.”

PWNED.

Then when I got home – new library card in hand (okay, wallet) – I checked my email and discovered that they’ve uploaded the song to the Friends of the Foot website for all the FotF members to download. So I have it anyway! I want to burn some copies myself and hide them around SA – which is what you’re supposed to do if you find one of the copies they’re having hidden all around the world (and then announcing on Twitter), but I’m not sure if the CDs they’re hiding/having hidden just have “Mess of Me” on them or if there’s a b-side that would then be missing from my CDs. Heh.

In other news, the CD player in my car has been out of commission for about a month now, much to my dismay. However, this does mean that I’m listening to the radio again, because I can’t drive without music going. I tend to flip between about nine different stations depending on what’s playing/who’s running commercials. One of the stations in my presets is K-LOVE, a national Christian rock station.
Since I’ve been listening to them more than usual, my discovery of new/new-to-me Christian rock songs has accelerated. Here’s some that are currently PWNING MY SOUL:

• Chris Tomlin – I Will Rise [video/lyrics]
• Chris Tomlin – Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) [video/lyrics]
• Jeremy Camp – There Will Be A Day [video/lyrics]
• Brandon Heath – Wait and See [video/lyrics]

Every single one of those had me wiping tears from my eyes the first time I heard them (whilst driving, mind you) and still do now. Actually, I almost had to pull over the first time I heard “Wait and See” because HELLO, MY LIFE. I mean, not the “born in TN, lucky to be alive, wasn’t good in school” part, but if there was anything I needed to hear/be reminded of these days, it’s the chorus to that song – “There is hope for me yet / Because God won’t forget / All the plans He’s made for me / I have to wait and see / He’s not finished with me yet.” I mean, SERIOUSLY. And then the first Chris Tomlin song and the Jeremy Camp song both are about there being no more pain/tears/unhappiness/etc and that always makes me cry. Go figure. And that version of Amazing Grace is BEAUTIFUL.

And now it’s almost my bedtime so I better wrap this up. Check those songs out, you won’t regret it.
ALSO: IF YOU’RE NOT WATCHING GLEE ON FOX, YOU SHOULD BE. TRUST ME. YOU’LL THANK ME LATER.

Repost: "You *shall* love"

In my continuing efforts to become one of the nerdiest people on the planet, I recently purchased a copy of Søren Kierkegaard’s Works of Love from Barnes & Noble and have been reading it mostly during breaks at work and my solitary dinners at home when I manage to eat at the table instead of in front of my computer/television. I decided to attempt to tackle Kierkegaard because my favorite band, Switchfoot, has a song called “Sooner or Later (Søren’s Song),” which is inspired by Kierkegaard’s philosophy. You can see the lyrics here, just scroll down a little.

Anyway, the section I’ve been reading in the last couple days is called “You Shall Love” and starts with the whole “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” commandment and builds from there.  The point as I understand it, which admittedly on one reading is probably not complete (heh), is that in becoming a duty (you shall love), love becomes truly free from restraint and truly eternal.
He writes:

But the love which has undergone the transformation of the eternal by becoming duty and which loves because it shall love-this love is independent; it has the law of its existence in the relationship of love itself to the eternal. This love can never become dependent in a false sense, for the only thing it is dependent upon is duty, and duty alone makes for genuine freedom.
[...]
In this way the “You shall” makes love free in blessed independence; such a love stands and does not fall with variations in the object of love; it stands and falls with eternity’s law, but therefore it never falls. Such a love is not dependent on this or on that. It is dependent on the one thing-that alone which makes for freedom-and therefore it is eternally independent.

It’s an interesting way to look at love, and an illuminating one. In the same chapter Kierkegaard also talks about how love that doesn’t come from that place of duty is changeable and therefore not free – there is always the worry that it won’t last hanging overhead. He speaks specifically about romantic love, and how if the two people don’t love each other from that place of duty, they feel the need to test their love because they fear it won’t last – and indeed, if they don’t feel a duty to love each other, it won’t last.

It reminded me of something I heard often when I was younger. My parents were involved in the Catholic marriage preparation/marriage enrichment programs Engaged Encounter and Marriage Encounter. The programs involve weekend retreats for couples, and the main room where the large group sessions are held is always decorated with banners that carry slogans on them. One of the slogans that imprinted most strongly on me, even as a child, was “love is a decision.”

Love – real love – isn’t something that just happens. It’s something you work at, something to choose to do, because that’s what we’re supposed to do as children of God. Love each other as we love ourselves.
So, aside from a quick trip up to Dallas with my sister to see Switchfoot in concert (and meet them, which was awesome, because I got to thank them for their role in my battle with depression), this is basically the only blog-worthy thing I’ve been up to lately. Still, if I’m gonna have one of these things, I really ought to try to update more.