7.28.2010

Music and Religious Life


You Are "Love Shack"



If you were transported back to the 80s, you would enjoy anything and everything underground.

You love the alternative aspects of 80s culture, and you're a bit disappointed that they've been forgotten over time.

You'd be goth, punk, new wave, or a rapper. Just not a yuppie, a preppy, or a jock!

You would relish living in a time where identifying with a subculture actually meant something.




Actually while I love the B-52's, I'm more of a Rock Lobster kind of girl. I used to have that album on vinyl (in the early 2000's - I bought it at a thrift store) and I would frequently blast the B-52s in my living room while puttering around in my apartment.

I was thinking the other day that I'm really lucky and happy that my entrance to religious life coincided with the advent of digital music. In the weeks of the great purge and pack project of 2006 before I entered the novitiate, I spent several days loading music onto my laptop and giving away or selling my CD collection. It's much easier to move around like I have the past few years without boxes and boxes of CDs. Not that I transferred it all to digital, but I do still have quite a music collection, even if I'm not adding to it much these days.

Another benefit of the mp3 player is that I can listen to all of my music pretty easily with headsets or in the car. These days, the only place I really blast music like the old days is in the car. I'm sure the people driving by think I'm a very strange woman, as I generally sing along at the top of my lungs as well.

I haven't really tried playing my music in community. Cool and groovy as my sisters are, I don't know that the Sisters I live with in their mid to late 60s would really be interested in Death Cab for Cutie, Throwing Muses, Built to Spill, or yes, even the B-52s. They might humor me, but they probably wouldn't get it.

Which, in summary, is why I am very grateful for the MP3 player. Great for airplanes too!

PS - Just to prove my music geek status, I was a member (and if I'm not mistaken secretary?) of the Progressive Music Club in my all girls high school. I would go with the punk rocker girls to record stores and buy records. If that doesn't date me, I don't know what does.

3 comments:

Jason said...

The other night, two "kids", (like 21 and 24 y.o.) called out to me from across the room and asked me if I liked Depeche Mode, and when I said yes, the sort of looked at each other and laughed.

I still don´t understand what that was all about.

Meg said...

Thank you SO MUCH for writing this! As a woman who is discerning and a person who has a love for all varieties of music (everything from Coolio (I like it because of the beat, not the lyrics) to Leontyne Price to Billy Joel to Building 429 to Silversun Pickups), I have wondered if I would have to give up some of my favorite music if/when I decided to join an order. I am so glad to know that I wouldn't have to give up my taste in music. I had actually been wondering about it over the past couple of days, so it's seemingly providential that I read this now!

Susan Rose Francois, CSJP said...

Meg,

Thanks so much for your comment. I think it might depend on the community how much of your music you can take with you. But in my experience, God calls us as we are, and if you are a music lover than I'd think that should come with you should you make the leap into religious life!

Blessings on your journey. If you have any questions, no matter how silly they may seem, my email box is open. My email address is on the blog in the sidebar on the right.

Jason - I was in a bowling alley the other day and though I recognized "People are People," but it was just the main riff that had been used for some techno song. Weird.