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 A blog about music from my unique perspective (also a spot for some poetry I’ve written) |
| I'm writing for the WdC 48 Hour Media Prompt Challenge, where they provide a song to inspire us. I've been in a ruminating mood all day ("Note: Maybe I'll tell the story behind this *^*Th...") and this is a perfect opportunity (excuse?) for me to ramble non-fictionally. The song: A Stone Only Rolls Downhill, by Ok Go. I have no intention of listening to it. I read the lyrics, and they triggered so much that was already bubbling under in my head, I don't need to know anything else about it. The theme is pessimistic for song lyrics, especially these days when pop music overflows with cheap mental health catchphrases and vapid reassurances that "you aren't ok, I'm not ok either, but it's gonna be fine…" which I scoff at yet also seek comfort in, though I don't care to indulge. Rather than offer these candy-corn empty calories, this song takes a more frank and gloomy perspective on things, saying "I really wish I could tell you it's all gonna be ok, but it's not, because of the laws of thermodynamics." ("Wait, what?" I hear you saying over your coffee. "You're going nerdy on us, Angel!") Basically, the narrator is blaming physics for life's problems. He's saying the natural defaults of gravity, inertia, and inexorable decay will be the death of everything good. Which is strictly true, because everything good in existence requires energy input. The creative process, whether on the grand scale of God's Creation at the beginning of time, or our own exhausting day to day struggle of self improvement, always demands thoughtful, active intervention. Nothing comes from nothing, and if left to itself everything will come to nothing in the end. When I was a kid, I read one of Agatha Christie's ancient Egypt murder mysteries which revolved around this theme. She outlined the slow, steady deterioration of human nature if left unattended, showing us people who started out as pretty decent, yet allowed their cracks to expand over many years, until their characters became distorted and they behaved in ways unrecognizable to someone who knew them only as they had once been. Her astute observations haunt me to this day, because I know they are true. I have a tendency to let everything revert to default mode, refraining from being an active participant in my own life. I want things to happen instinctively, naturally, without the expenditure of effort that any real improvement or advancement requires. You can call it lazy; I call it fear, lack of ambition, and a serious failure to recognize the urgency of using the present to prepare a better future. Allowing things to remain as they are indefinitely without external input is dangerous and stupid, no matter whether we're discussing home improvement, car repairs, outer space or mental health. It's like trying to drive a car without keeping your hands on the wheel or your foot on the gas pedal; you can say "well, I've had it aligned, I filled it with gas, it'll keep going in a straight line forever," but it will always, always go sliding off course, stop moving forward and leave you stranded in the woods. It's even as simple as making your bed every morning because you hate the tangle it gets into after a few days. The bed never makes itself, and the car never truly drives itself. Drawing from this, one must be constantly vigilant and proactive in all areas of life, understanding what needs to be done to maintain a healthy status quo and what further efforts should be made to improve upon the default. So, coming back around, I don't like this song, even though I identify all too strongly with the accuracy of the theme. The narrator's attitude is lackadaisical, allowing the downhill default of a rolling stone to sweep him away into the gutter without protest. He refuses to take action to improve things, instead claiming helplessness against the inexorable tides of fate. I prefer the attitude of Imagine Dragons lead singer Dan Reynolds, who consistently engages himself in a multilevel battle against his default. He has Ankylosing Spondylitis, which if left untreated causes the fusion of bones and lost mobility. Rather than allowing this to happen, he sticks to a rigorous diet and exercise plan which keeps his body strong and healthy. He struggles with depression, anxiety, people pleasing, introversion, and pain, but he never surrenders to any of it. His lyrics display a resilience and determination to keep moving forward no matter how hard it is, even if he has to "kill off" the flaws which hold him back… leading occasionally to unsettling songs blurring the lines between internal and external battles. (More on that someday.) For myself, I struggle in many areas which require consistent action towards improvement. Some days I feel like a nihilist, questioning why anything at all is worth doing if everything crumbles in the end. I need songs like a "slap in the face," not songs that wallow in the hopeless, self-fulfilling prophecy of what will never be if you don't get off your rear end and do something about it. Speaking from a faith perspective, we should also consider that God is actively upholding the universe, pouring His living spirit into everything and providing stasis and stability. Without God's consistent intervention, the universe would cease to exist, winding down like clockwork, reverting to the default of thermodynamic laws. For this, we should be grateful. Belief in this helps us to refute the attitudes of those who claim "a stone only rolls downhill…" With God's grace, we can push that stone back where it belongs and keep it there. Now my mind wanders to the Greek mythology of Sisyphus, perpetually pushing a boulder uphill only to watch it roll back down again. A nihilistic worldview could be drawn from that: why bother? This is why one needs to have faith rather than succumb to secularism. Despite claiming to free us from boundaries and expectations, it rather leads us to the blank and depressing conclusion that life is devoid of meaning unless we invent our own. Some of us are too exhausted to invent meaning and will let the void devour us. Perhaps that's what happened to the narrator of A Stone Only Rolls Downhill. A big thank-you to StoryMaster for bringing us the Media Challenge this month. I was keenly aware of its absence in April. This one came at the right moment, allowing me to dig myself out of my day's swampy ruminations and approach them from a different perspective…. though I doubt I've scratched the surface of my thoughts on the subject. Words: 1,110. Written for "Note: 48-HOUR CHALLENGE : Media Prompt Deadl..." |
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