We give up

sound of music

This is a definite first for me. During the piano departmental class today, where our classical piano student colleagues play for the whole classical piano department, I heard satan play. He won a scholarship to UNT for his playing, have you heard of him? lol. Actually, it was a Russian guy, and it was amazing. It sounded like he not only composed the piece, but that his purpose was to convey the emotion in the piece, not worrying about the notes he is “supposed” to play (which I think directly or indirectly melted the inner critic inside of me). He played: 12 lieder von schubert no.2 – auf dem wasser zu singen d. 774 no. 9 – standchen, schwanengesang d. 957 no. 2 and 9 of the 12 songs Listz composed for shubert. As a performer, a finely tuned performer, Satan, as I refer to him, made clear the intentions of the composer. I heard a composer who himself heard the echoes of the past life of another. It was clear, and complimented my thoughts on death and life. Eh, not complimented but rather.. chiseled a grove in the rock so my tears could fill it.. and they did.. I was like balling in class, seriously. this is hard to accomplish, especially with your colleagues, who you are constantly comparing and contrasting yourself to, all the while fighting your jealous emotions if you pale in comparison, and fighting your prideful tendancies if you are stronger than the other. Yesterday, he played so effortlessly and with so much conviction, that this cynic inside of me quickly subsided any tendencies to label this one as a “good performer” or a “bad performer”.. or this music as “good music” or “bad music”, i heard that voice just subside.. it was the sound of trust. of letting go. of repentance. of being “undone”.. this sound can be laughter and sobbing, it can be any sound that comes from a jump from a high place.. not necesarrily a belief that once you hit the ground you will be okay, but that in mid air, you have arrived already. Its a good sound.. its music!

Separation for “unity’s” sake

The name of the personal interest/counseling group I wanted to join was “Walking by Faith, Dating by Faith”.. at least that was the name until the higher administration thought it fit that the group sessions should be postponed and the name should be changed to “Faith, Friends, and Dating” because the proposed name suggested a certain faith.

When I met with the councilor, she asked me to spell out the frustration I had faced when my religious views conflict with my social life. There were to be four or five in the group who went through the same questions and who would be put in the same room together with the councilor to get down to the root of things in a civilized conversation.

At least, that’s what was supposed to happen..

The first meeting, we were informed that the whole semesters’ sessions were canceled. Despite this, we had a chance to introduce ourselves and our religious backgrounds and I found there was a buddhist, muslim, jew, and a bahai sitting around me, a christian. These people all felt the conflict between their religious values and their social lives, but they were stopped from socially relating to one another in an effort to be politically correct, and the irony continues…

I think I witnessed firsthand what the prince of darkness is trying to do with our society… separate us for the sake of “unity”. But just like the hunting leopard that aims to separate the weak or young from the group, killing is his goal, not unity. I believe inch by inch, he tries to “seal the deal” by exploiting the hurt we feel with conflicts, and providing a way to seclude ourselves from hurt behind walls of words the courts have deemed politically correct.

The irony lies in the word unity, because the only faith that offers it, is the only faith that is exclusive in its claim that Jesus is the way. Exclusiveness itself is a stumbling block for this era, and it causes us to separate and build our own worlds, and it takes an objective exclusiveness with mercy to remove the veil to our eyes to see our own hurt, and those hurts around us so that we can show grace to them.

I hope that we can pray for our leaders, because if they don’t see the need for the revealing of our souls, they won’t know how to diagnose the problems, and will keep fostering our separation for “unity’s” sake.

Truth,  it’s out there