Working It Out

Recently, I had the pleasure of teaching a class on music in church worship services. The teaching was - in a nutshell - that we as Christians need to incorporate all forms, genres, styles of music into our corporate worship being careful to not label any one type of song more authentic than the others. The curriculum referred to this inclusion as "a plurality of music".

The reason that we are to include all forms of music into our corporate worship is because it reflects God's whole intention for our experience. In other words, music used in corporate worship should reflect life -- joy, pain, celebration, aging, grieving, birthing, finding, rehearsing, losing, persevering, repenting, receiving, giving, transitioning, living and dying. All these things and more sum up how we - the Church - feel when we come to a service together. Our music should find us in these places and inform us on the redemptive path of life.

This teaching - remember I gave the nutshell version (it took 50 minutes to teach) - was on my mind last night when I visited a colleague at the funeral home last night. His mother had just passed away. It was on my mind this morning when I plugged my ear buds, descended to my basement, and began working out. The iPod was on "shuffle"

Listen to the songs that played and see if you they take you on the same full experience-tour that I went on. It may be fun.

Dance, Dance, Dance

This is in response to my lovely wife, Tamara's, Monday Mix Tape blog post. The theme of her mix this week is "dancing".

May I present the 1984 motion picture -- Footloose, staring Kevin Bacon.

The story is about Ren, a high school aged hormone machine (but all around good guy) who moves to a small western town where Ren is surprised to find that dancing and rock music are illegal. Ren promptly falls for troubled damsel-in-distress, Ariel, who is the daughter of the towns Bible thumping preacher -- Reverend Moore (John Lithgow).

SPOILER ALERT: Reverend Moore is the force behind the law banning dancing. As the story progresses it is uncovered that one of Moore's children had died returning from a dance. Alcohol was somehow involved in the tragedy. Moore's thinking is simple -- dancing leads to drinking and drinking leads to death; therefore, ban dancing and eliminate teenage death.

The movie peaks when Ren makes an impassioned speech to the town counsel using the Bible to defend dancing.

Do yourself a favor. Watch Footloose in all of its' big hair, spandex, leg warmer glory.

Series Finale

I started this blog about a year ago after I took a trip with my friend Scott to the Rideau Canal in Canada. I was determined to write my thoughts and passions down and wait for the world to take marvel. Well...

This is my first post. The profound topic I have chosen to begin with is TV shows and their finales. What a difference a year makes.

I am currently watching the Lost series finale. I know that the finale aired two months ago on ABC, but I am just getting to it today via my DVR. The series is self-proclaimed as "a story that captured our hearts, challenged our minds, and changed our lives." In about 63 minutes I will be able to say that I have watched every episode of Lost. Now, don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the series, but...

There has been a lot of mixed reviews for the final episode. I can't give you a personal opinion -- 43 minutes left to go; however, 13.5 million people watched the series finale. The final season has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards, and the show shrunk to 11 million regular viewers over its run. Viewership shrunk to 11 million. Still not everyone is happy, in fact some are even angry, with the finale.

I am asking myself why so many good shows end so badly. Seinfeld drew 76 million viewers for a finale that even Jerry Seinfeld admits is lacking. Over 12 million people watched The Sopranos final episode on HBO which (SPOILER ALERT) fades to black in the middle of a sentence. Viewers panned the episode for weeks after it aired. "Why" I ask, are so many finales so disappointing?

I have two theories.

M*A*S*H*, the sitcom that spanned parts of two decades and covered the Vietnam War by spoofing the Korean Police Action, drew 122 million viewers for its' critically acclaimed final episode. The M*A*S*H* finale was the first major TV finale of any consequence. Simply put, it set the bar too high.

M*A*S*H* had all the necessary components for a great finish. It's story had a natural end -- peace. It had a history of taking on the tough subject which it did during the finale. (The final episode opens with the main character, Hawkeye, in a mental hospital.) It had great characters. The writing made Emmy nominees out of b-list actors. 122 million people watched the last episode and were generally happy with the story -- amazing -- 122 million people generally happy. There are six people in my house right now, and I am sure if we took a survey my approval rating would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 percent.

Goodbyes are hard. Goodbyes are never satisfying. Final goodbyes are worse. Final goodbyes are like a death without a funeral, a poem without a resolution, a house without a roof.

Due to downsizing, sometime between now and January, my current job will come to an end -- a series finale if you will. I am finding, that as the days on the calendar shrink to the final episode, their is little hope for ultimate satisfaction. Their will be too many tasks to accomplish, too many ideas to communicate, and too many relationships to develop between now and then in order find satisfying resolution. At least I can say that my current job has, for better or worse, captured my heart, challenged my mind, and changed my life. As for Lost, I'm not sure. I still have about 22 minutes left.