Saturday, July 02, 2011

Country Music

My family says it all went downhill after I bought my first pair of boots. They tease me mercilessly over my growing love of Country music. I've tried to defend myself but the best defense is just hitting play on my Country Favs playlist and they scatter!

I have thought a lot about why I have grown to appreciate this genre that for so long irritated me beyond belief. And here it is in a nutshell. There is no pretense. Country music tells our stories. All of us can find a place of entry into the story of life through the lyrics you hear. Heartache, joy, pain, regret, celebration, love, desire, misplaced trust, fear, forbidden love, grief - it's all there. I love the raw, unedited take on what "Joe and Suzy Normal" really experience in life. I love the way the sacred and the secular walk hand in hand. It's what I believe about life - in musical lyrics. I think it took me being more aware of my own humanity and brokenness. In that frame of mind I could hear a song and it would resonate with me. I started to "me too" and "I get that" along with what I was hearing.

I am comforted especially by the holy proximity I hear. You know, the guy sitting at the bar recounting the issues of his heart but also acknowledging God. Instead of painting a picture of life that adds to the segmented regular and spiritual life myth. Country music really says, "everything is spiritual."

So, Billy Currington perhaps you are right. God is great, beer is good and people are crazy!