Dear everyone who has taken the time to read this,
Last weekend I made the long drive home from Pittsburgh to Spartanburg, SC where I live. On an 8 hour ride there isn't a great deal to do other than driving, listening to music, and thinking. As some of you may know, a man's brain is not designed to entertain a large number of thoughts at one time. If I am listening to music, I am not really thinking, and conversely if I am thinking I am not really listening to music. Therefore, after a week of heavy learning in Pittsburgh, I decided to opt out of thinking and elected to simply listen to music for at least an hour. 90's grunge has been my music of choice for the past six months or so for a few very specific reasons. I don't know how familiar those reading this post are with popular music history so I suppose I should at least give you a little context so we are all on the same page.
In the 1970's, bands like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Queen, and the like displayed their artistry through elements of virtuosity, i.e screaming guitar solos and high/techinical singing. In the 1980's, with the advent of improved recording technology, popular rock and roll aqcuired a very polished sound to accompany the musical virtuosity that rolled over from the 70's. Think: Van Halen, Poison, and Gun's and Roses. On the tail end of the 80's bands like the Beastie Boys took the idea of popular rock and began to deconstruct its virtuosity for a more raw emotional feel. By the early 90's bands like Pearl Jam, Radio Head, Nirvana and many other had taken deconstruction to its fullest extent, exchanging technical vocals for shouting and guitar solos for heavily strummed, overly simplified power chords, and the American populous loved it.
I think the overwhelming allure to this genre of Rock and Roll is its unfiltered approach to emotion and unfettered commentary on the desire of American society to fit into nice, neat, safe boxes of self identification. I find myself as a white male, raised in the Southeast, to have been steeped in the ways of Southern gentility, and poured over saccharine attempts at hiding imperfections in my own life as well as well as in our society at large. It feels fitting to use such language because in my own personal life I have come to know this aforementioned condition as the "Sweet tea syndrome". All of our tea leaves need to fit nice and neatly into their filter bags so nothing comes out of place while it is being boiled. After the tea has steeped properly, we dump inordinate amounts of sugar into our concoction to ensure that all bitterness is removed. Then we chill it with ice to make sure it goes down as smooth and sweet as it can possibly be.
At this point I know I may have extended this metaphor past its use, but I am hoping everyone who is accustomed to southern culture or has at least seen overstated representations of it on TV is starting to catch my drift. Life is not only full of joy and success, but bitterness and pain. I find myself very much looking forward to a green tea society, where all the tea leaves are dumped directly into the pot, boiled, and the natural bitterness is enjoyed. In so many scriptural examples, Jesus weeps when he is sad, rejoices when he is overjoyed and seeks sustenance when he is hungry. Jesus does not neglect his needs, emotional or physical, in an attemp to save face. I hope to engage my new home abroad, and my current home in the states in a genuine and unfiltered manner with the greatest purpose of making the kingdom of heaven and the freedom of Christ known, where we are able to be who we were created to be, not donning masks of our societal status quo.
More to come as more comes to me,