In Good Company

Sooooo... I was thinking some more about what I posted yesterday, and I wanted to add a couple of things. First, as I said, I am no longer judging people according to their musical tastes... AND I am also not judging anyone according to their relationship to the Almighty... That's really not my thing. I was just saying that it was silly of me to rate my own worth – or anyone else’s – according to musical preferences... 

Also, a great bonus of having a deep interest in music is the people you meet who share it – it’s like being in a foreign country and finding someone who speaks your language. You may be sitting at the weird kids table in the lunch room, but you’re in pretty good company!

Here are just a few examples: 

• With my junior high friend Allison, I listened to Elton John non-stop and attended my first concert – that’s right, Elton John. 

• In college, my friend Suzanne and I listened to the Rolling Stones and discussed the Glimmer Twins at length. It was with Suzanne that I first put my toe into the local music scene with visits to the Pier. (Howdy, Suzanne!)

Time for a night of fellowship
with my girl Alecia!

• My post-college roommate Alecia: though we met in the extreme prep-dom of the expensive dorm, we found pretty quickly that we preferred similar music... As roommates we slathered on plenty of eyeliner for club nights together... and we are friends to this day. (Hey Alecia!)  

• Alecia and I met Eric, while standing in line to see Quadrophenia at a late show. He was wearing an army jacket like a real Mod. Yep - I’m still friends with Eric... (Hi Eric!)

• And then there’s Todd – a beautiful, sweet guy I met in a record store, like, a zillion years ago, and have been so pleased to find on Facebook recently. I LOVE that he is back on my radar! My son can hardly believe I have an actual friend with dreadlocks. (Hi Todd!)

Sweet, beautiful Todd

• And I loooooove all my brothers and sisters with an immeasurable kind of love, but there’s a reason my brother Andy and I are so close... (Hey, Fudd!) It all comes down to the music. Click HERE to hear a song he wrote that explains it all. (This is the best way I could figure out to add a song – if anyone knows a better way, please share!)

• Last, but most, my husband, Tom, and I were able to step over the invisible line between news and advertising staffs in the little newspaper office we worked in because of our shared love for music and movies. It’s still something that adds great dimension to our relationship.

It’s a little like the friends you make at church in a way – broken people sharing their lives... Inasmuch as rock and roll is an expression of great angst and alienation... And when you get together and share this among yourselves, well – that’s fellowship. 

Robert Smith
of the Cure

Sure, you may have dark circles under your eyes from staying up all night discussing song meanings... or you may have a headache from bobbing your head up and down during “fellowship”... you may be deaf the next day in the ear that was next to the amp tower... you may never get the smell of cigarette smoke out of that black shirt that you think makes you look like Robert Smith... (I’m dating myself, aren’t I? People don’t smoke in clubs anymore!)...

But the feeling you share with your fellow headbangers... It's a beautiful thing... if you allow music to invoke the Divine... to pull truth out of those late night discussions. Maybe our relationship to music, to each other around the music is sort of a picture of our relationship to the Divine and His people. I guess it would be sad, though, to  mistake one for the other... If we're lucky, though, one will lead to the other.