Mixtape Miercoles

Everytime I listen to Sufjan it seems I have a new epiphany. I don't think anyone who listens to Sufjan often would be surprised--he's distinctly Christian in a good deal of his songs. He quotes scripture and has done covers of some really great Christmas songs (my favorite being "O Come O Come Emmanuel", which is my favorite Christmas song of all time).

This is not a new epiphany, and this song might be a strange choice, especially if I'm trying to argue Sufjan as another Gospel writer. But the song "Casmir Pulaski Day" says so much about God that people aren't willing to say, or even admit to themselves.

The song's narrator falls in love with a woman who has bone cancer. She loves him, relunctantly (knowing her condition is fatal), and dies.

The narrator sings:

Oh the glory that the lord has made
And the complications when I see his face
In the morning in the window

Oh the glory when he took our place
But he took my shoulders and he shook my face
And he takes and he takes and he takes

I think the last two verses, and I don't want to preach too much, say three things:
1. God stares us in the face particularly when we wish He didn't exist and think we can do without.
2. God became man through Jesus and this reminds us that when we suffer, God knows our suffering personally and intricately.
3. God takes, and takes, and takes and this feels unfair. And that's okay because God is big enough for us to be angry at Him.

Anyway, that's what I was thinking. "Ring Them Bells" is a cover I listened to a lot this summer.

This week has been really, really good to me so far. Yesterday alone is worth outlining. Cookie making, a brilliant movie in Spanish, a letter in the mail, getting Forklore (a cookbook from Fork, a Philadelphia institution), having a great night at work, not to mention Mac & Cheese from a box (and someone to share it with).

I've got a few recipes lined up for you, but I figured I'd take some time today and up the JC on this blog.

Oh, and I saw the UCC commercial I posted last week on Bravo tonight!

THE SMART DOGS RAN OFF
I sat one day with a priest who expounded on the
doctrine of hell.

I listened to him for hours, then he asked me
what I thought of all
he said.

And I replied,

The doctrine seems an inhumane cage;
no wonder the smart dogs
ran off.

Kabir
(1440-1518)