Songs of Innocence

U2

Last night, I put the headphones on and really listened to the U2 album Songs of Innocence. On top of the great musicality of the songs are the lyrics. So much profound insight. This is the album that Apple downloaded automatically for free onto their devices. I didn't quite understand the uproar.  

 U2 and Apple are more than welcome to download all of U2 albums for free on iTunes for me.  It is hard for me to put into words how important U2 has been to my soul every since they first appeared in the early 1980's. Rock and Roll has influenced many to ruin but U2 has been redemptive.  They were and are such a breath of fresh air.  

 Song by song, here are some of the best: (maybe for the sake of brevity, I will just take on two at a time and return to it in the future). 

 "I was young, not dumb" - The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)

 As a high school counselor, I am often struck by how wise kids are. They lack experience of some things due to youth, yet as image bearers of God, they often have deep insight into life and the events of their lives. Rather than me being the dispenser of wisdom and advice like Guidance Gumball Machine, it is often more important to listen to what they say and mean and to affirm their observations. It means a lot to them that an adult recognizes their intelligence. They are young, not dumb.  I know as a kid I needed that affirmation and didn't always get it. But, there were instances where an adult gave that confirmation when they didn't have to. And it made a huge difference. 

 "If you go your way and I go mine" - Every Breaking Wave

 The reality of life is not everything works out well. Sometimes we part ways. Maybe one redeeming aspect of Facebook is that people who I used to spend a lot of time with in person who now live in different places or have just a different circle, stay before me in some small way. I think if you ask anyone my age what one of the greatest surprises of existence on earth has been is how fast life truly goes. Minutes become hours, hours become days, days become months, and months become years. And the better life is, the faster it goes. Time slows down during trials and adversities. Like walking on glass with barefeet, each excruciating step is deeply felt and registered, whereas a run through the soft grass just passes by swiftly.

 OK, that is it. Now for a joke. Bono and Edge walk into a bar. And the bartender says, "Not U 2 again."        

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