A Short Note On The New Song "Chin Up High" by Noonish Moon

About a week after my accident in early July, Wolfgang was attending an outdoor camp, so we would get up early to help him get ready. I would usually go back to bed for a bit afterwards, but some morning in the middle of the week I went to the piano and started working on a little tune. I remember Susan asking me, "Are you working on a song?" - and I said, "I think so." It was a baby step back to things I liked to do.

I started working on it a bit more, and I didn't like it that much at first - but after tinkering quite a bit, I got the melody to a point I liked. The triplet in the third measure made it work, along with the chord progression towards the end. It was slightly more straightforward than my usual style, but it had one slight twist in it that I've always wanted to do. Almost every song is in a key - it has a main note or chord that it returns to, and this one is definitely in a key as well - but this tune never returns to the "tonic" (main note/chord). I love it when songs do that. They can be really simple songs, but that little twist can make the tune interesting. The tune "Magnet and Steel" by Walter Egan does this - as does "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry (I think, I need to relisten). I think Nathan Siler pointed this out to me? Anyhow, there is an unsettled energy to a song that never resolves.

I added lyrics. I imagined peaceful, strong, determined protesters standing up for justice. I imagined people working to make the world a more equitable place for all. I imagined their hard work in the face of forces that are more interested in maintaining the status quo. It became a song of encouragement and conviction - even though that was about the opposite of how I was feeling. But that's how things work sometimes right? Brian Wilson wrote songs about surfing, but he didn't surf. Leroy Anderson wrote "Sleighride" in July. Music goes deep, to a different place from our current reality, and hopefully brings things to the surface. We hope that works of imagination and craft, on all levels, help to create the manifestation of actual, concrete change for the better. We'll hope anyway.

Authority And Power Trump Good.

A common refrain over the last four years has been, "I just don't see how Christians can follow someone like Trump. It completely contradicts what they believe about Jesus."

While I agree with the sentiments about Jesus - the current president is the opposite of the Sermon on the Mount - I'd offer that conservative Christians are actually acting based precisely on how they believe. I am certainly not speaking about all conservative Christians, but many for sure.

Christians who interpret the Bible literally have been taught to respect the authority of "God". Because of this authority, they justify God drowning (almost) the entire population of the Earth with a great flood - men, women, children, babies, animals, etc. They've been taught to justify God ordering the Israelites to brutally kill adults and children in Jericho (Joshua 6) or commanding the murder of Amalekite adults and children in 1 Samuel 15. God made them, so He can do whatever He wants with them, right? They sinned (forget about the good they've done), so they deserve violent death, right? There are many other examples as well through Scripture.

Why would Christians either create justifications for God reportedly doing these things, or simply defer to his authority? Because it's in their interest. They can keep their "keep out of Hell" card, or believe there is a strongman somewhere in the universe, or believe they have a spiritual parent to take care of them. And they can keep the authority of the Bible which comforts them - something seemingly concrete to lean on. So when something good is attributed to God, then they praise God as good. When something bad is attributed, it becomes "we can't understand with our limited human morality. We must respect God's authority."

Obviously any God would almost certainly be beyond our complete understanding, but we are talking about an inconsistent application of credit here (and a systematic way to justify evil). If God is beyond, then we can't attribute good or evil. Only power. If God is within our ability to morally understand, then we must use that sense of morality (often called "natural law" for Christians) consistently. This is one reason why many Christians see the Bible as a human attempt to understand God, rather than as a perfect revelation from God. Our human nature, in all its glory and horror, is revealed therein.

So when an authority - our current president perhaps - is perceived to be acting in the interest of conservative Christians, many are quite willing to do the same moral maneuvering they've always done for God. It's in their interest, they think, and it's nothing new.