Forever Now
I have a new favorite Switchfoot album cover.
Y’all give much thought to Switchfoot?
I do. They’re family to me. They turn data into song. They give to airy nothing a local habitation and a name. They’ve sought out new lifeforms and new civilizations across two centuries. They bear witness to John M. Perkins on the airwaves. Their very first demo as a band had a hand-drawn picture of Soren Kierkegaard on the cover.
And now we have this loveliness. Please behold and listen before reading the words that follow:
That there is track one on an album (Forever Now) that won’t drop in its entirety till a ways into June. I am not in a position to say what anything means, but I have feelings and thoughts.
I hear weariness and lamentation AND a determination to confront dysfunction within and without. There’s anger too; a deep registering of the price we pay when we try to suppress or smooth over suffering by, for starters, lying about how we’re really feeling. It’s like we’re hearing the psyche in free fall. But that’s not all!
There is (toward the end) a devastating bridge:
Voice at the end of the line
Which of these voices is mine
Worried of what I might find
Mining the halls of my mind
If truth is freedom and light
Why is it truth that I fight?
Or is it the darkness inside
Scared to be taken alive?
I’m amazed by all of it, but it’s that last part—a darkness within that’s scared of being engaged or made to surface or brought out into the light that gets me feeling and then thinking about the forms my fears clomped up with the accompanying denials about my fears take. This puts me in mind of The Babadook as well as that troublingly helpful saying attributed to Jesus of Nazareth: If the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness. “Wake Up, Mr. Crow,” helps me level with myself a little harder. I need more of this in my life.
I also love that the video looks like it was filmed on the set of Children of Men (2006).
In any case, this song and this album to come are an encouragement to me. I’d welcome anything anyone wishes to say about how it lands with you.
Dark out.
I think I’m following. The song is asking how is the darkness within me contributing to the darkness I see and despise all around me. A common switchfoot theme: a call for peace and unity by looking within instead of pointing the finger. And when you start to do that, anger gives way to grief. For the suffering and darkness in you and around you. Dark dark dark.
Ya know, it's kinda surreal to get off the phone with my former engineering boss (20 years my senior!) after strongly encouraging him to cut out his ongoing affair and tell his wife everything, and then discover your lovely blog post nestled in my inbox...what whiplash! And that, just after I borrow your eloquence in submitting my song request of "Politicians" for Switchfoot's monthly livestream in April earlier today:
"Last night, I took my "little" Christopher (a term from the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program) to a Detroit Pistons game against the Toronto Raptors. For the singing of the Canadian anthem, I rose with the rest of the crowd in solemn observance of one of our compulsory cultural liturgies...and yet, when the singer began to espouse the U.S. anthem, the video boards became emblazoned with the stars and stripes, and the overhead lights streamed red, white, and blue...I found myself unable to continue standing, pondering some salient questions which Jon posed nearly a decade ago: 'ARE we the "land of the free and the home of the brave?' Who are we the people? What is the character of the nation underneath the flag? Do we empower and uphold the freedom and bravery of others, or does our flag wave over a different kind of land?' And, I discovered that I did not like the answers I found. In times when I feel like "everything is broken, breaking down," in times when "everything is bleeding, (humanity) is bleeding," and my tax dollars and presumed consent are funding a military-industrial-incarceration-entertainment complex which justifies the bombing and murder of innocent Iranian schoolgirls, I find that I need this song more than ever: 'I pledge allegiance to a country without borders, without politicians.'"
I confess that I haven't listened to the song, nor pondered its lyrics, as I forswear Switchfoot spoilers and singles on principle ere the release of each new album*, but to echo your sentiment when you signed my copy of "Everyday Apocalypse," "I hope you find this wonderful," I also fervently hope to be delighted by "Forever Now!" Thank you for the unexpected joy of your post on a heavy, bewildering day!
* As a 17yo approaching his senior year of high school and eagerly awaiting the release of "Vice Verses," I took the announced track listing and penned poems based on nothing more than the title and my personal speculation, a tradition which I've maintained ever since!