Tuesday 12 June 2012

"In the middle of the night ..."

I'm working on putting together a Mix CD for our older children (I will reveal myself right now as a child of the 80's by saying that the phrase "Mix CD" sounds awkward to me, and that I vastly prefer the sassy-sounding "Mix Tape."  Even if you're talking about a CD.  But that's just me).

It will feature songs from mainstream pop culture that are spiritually enriching.  This is not "Christian rock," but nor is it secular music - it straddles a midpoint, in which Judeo-Christian imagery is used to address the big questions of life, but without being explicitly religious.  Doubt and skepticism are common.

I want them to know that "faith" and "regular life" are not incompatible, without them feeling that they have to turn to the "Christian" alternative of mainstream culture in order to make that possible.  They can, as they become teenagers, go to regular bars and regular clubs and listen to regular music, and there find people, music, films, art, and theatre that addresses religion and spirituality.

Okay, so a Mix CD on its own isn't going to do all this, but it's a start.  We'll supplement it with regular trips to the theatre and cinema, and hopefully a book group at some point.

So far, I've got:

1. Billy Joel: "River of Dreams"
2. Leonard Cohen: "Hallelujah"
3. The Beatles: "Let It Be"
4. Tracy Wells' recording of "By the Rivers of Babylon"
5. "On the Willows" from Godspell

It's looking pretty meagre - any other suggestions?

2 comments:

  1. Les Miz? Secret Garden? Fiddler? Lion King?

    Or are those all so last decade(s)?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Musicals are hard to include without context - that's the main problem with them. The finale of Les Mis can stand pretty well on its own, and Sabbath Prayer from Fiddler could manage it, but for the rest you'd have to sit down with the album and a plot synopses to get the meaning across.

    ReplyDelete