All In A Song

Twenty-fifth day of the month, morning reading, "LIFE" section sidebar of the Denver Post:

TOP TUNES - Here are top song downloads last week (billboard.com):
1. Promiscuous, Nelly Furtado and Timbaland
2. Crazy, Gnarls Barkley
3. Hips Don't Lie, Shakira with Wyclef Jean
4. Ain't No Other Man, Christina Aguilera

Twenty-fifth day of the month, morning reading, The Book of Common Prayer:
"Your statutes have been like songs to me wherever I have lived as a stranger." Ps.119.54

The core of Psalm 119 is LIFE - life that comes from God and God's decrees, commandments, statutes and words - or as the Psalmist calls them, "songs." The songs are what keeps the life alive, keeps the rhythm and beat going. I wonder what would happen if I downloaded the spirit of Psalm 119 into the top song downloads from last week...

I don't know who Nelly Furtado is or even what a Timbaland is, but my download would speak to promiscuity and the ripples it causes. The life that God sings is a song about faithfulness, fidelity, commitment. Something along the lines of Dolly Parton singing, "Eeeyyyeee, will always love you." Promiscuity might be fun for a night or a weekend, but we're talking about something that can carry you for LIFE, the long haul, all four verses of the songs. And promiscuity runs out. Quick. And maybe Gnarls Barkley has a substantive message in "Crazy" (I'll try and listen sometime - maybe); but maybe he doesn't. I say "he" because I'm not sure how to gender ole' Gnarls; the name sounds like an angry dog. But maybe Gnarls would think my download crazy, that promiscuity is full of life and faithfulness is old and stale and boring. But if the people or places that I've pledged faithfulness to have become stale and boring, then it's a red flag that I've lost my sense of WONDER - definitely a "crazy" way to try and live life. Patsy Cline sang about being "crazy" for the long haul, in an over the river and through the woods kind of way; and she didn't gnarl or bark at all. Shakira is no doubt telling me "Hips Don't Lie" whilst shakiring her own; I don't know what Wyclef Jean is doing. Maybe she's there to say, "Amen. Hip it sister." But if you're taking your LIFE cues from someone's hips and the truthfulness or lack of in those hips, then your gaze has fallen a little low. Better listen to Peter Gabriel sing "In Your Eyes" and focus on the windows of the soul and the truth that is always there. I've seen some pretty lying hips before, promising the universe; but the eyes attached to those hips knew the offer was empty, devoid of LIFE. I'm fairly sure I saw Christina Aguilera on a magazine cover once in some buckskin lingerie, looking like Pocahontas in heat. She sure was surrounded by a whole bunch of other men to be singing "Ain't No Other Man." I'd say the guy believing that one is a first class sucker. The song title is one that promises fidelity; however, this is one of those times when Shakira knows of what she sings - hips don't lie and Christina's are giving us the kind of "Crazy" Orwellian double-speak that our culture seems to believe is LIFE. At least according to billboard.com. I'm not sure Tammy always did it, but when the Why-nette sang, "Stand By Your Man" I believed her; still do. For better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health - words of promise, not promiscuity. Words that are really CRAZY if you really think about them. Words that stand by the hips when they don't shake anymore, the breasts when they sag, the tire when it inflates beyond the recommended psi, the hair when it grays, and the knees when they give out. Words from the mouth that match the ways of the body, being as faithful in your buckskin as you are in your vocals. There's only one letter's difference between LIFE and LIE. Oh, be careful little pods what you load...