One Direction's Story of My Life

I thought I would look at some top 40 songs for a couple of posts.

A girl in my old Sunday school class loved (and still loves) the latest boy-band One Direction. I noticed them on the most recent, top 40 list at number 10 with their song Story of My Life.



Some of the lyrics stuck out to me:

Written on these walls are the colors that I can't change
Leave my heart open but it stays right here in its cage
I know that in the morning now I see us in the light upon a hill
Although I am broken, my heart is untamed, still

And I'll be gone, gone tonight
The fire beneath my feet is burning bright
The way that I've been holding on so tight
With nothing in between

It's strange that even though the former couple of the song are no longer together, the singer of the song will see himself and his former love-interest "in the morning" "in the light upon a hill".

This reminds me of the light on the hill, or mountain:

You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. Matthew 5: 14-16

It seems that their love was a glimpse, for them and others who saw them together, of the God Who is Love. And, even though the love that might have been there was requited by this girl, it can still go on to perhaps give itself to someone else. His love is still open to bare itself again.

This love cannot be hidden, or tamed once it is laid bare.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Part III

(Links for Part I / Part II)

One the best scenes of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was the dialog between Kirk and Spock in Spock's quarters.

Kirk was debating whether to take the training crew of the Enterprise under Spock's command to a potentially dangerous location.


 
This scene is so good since it shows how two totally different people, one totally logical (really utilitarian stoicism) and the other passionate, can be friends and colleagues.

If you watch the other Star Trek movies and even the original series, these two and McCoy would just hang out together.

But what's the use of hanging out? Well, friendship in and of itself has no uses per se, but is a good in itself. Natural Law Theory defines friendship as one of the basic goods that is good in and of itself.

Miss Saigon Wedding Scene

My first girlfriend and I went to see Miss Saigon in Pittsburgh. She asked me a question about the wedding scene that gave me something to think about for a long time. (It's at 2:00 in the video below; **Warning** The first two minutes are not appropriate for young viewers.)



She asked me, "Do you think they are really married?" I thought, I don't know since there was no priest (or minister, she was/is Southern Baptist) to marry them.

It took me a while to discover that it's not a minister that makes someone married, but the couple themselves.

But, how can that be? Well, the nitty-gritty of it is that a marriage really takes place when it is consummated between man and woman. So, in any culture, if they are Christian or not, a man and women are married when the marriage is bonded in the flesh.

This actually comes from Jesus' own mouth.

He [Jesus] said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” Matthew 19: 4-6

So, before Abraham (Judaism/Islam), before Christianity (the incarnation), before all modern religions, the way to make a marriage was through becoming "one flesh".

(Of course, many other questions could be raised, but that's all I'll say about this for now.)

Touched by an Angel Theme Song

I heard that Touched by an Angel is back on pay TV (non-antenna channel). My wife has been watching the show again on DVD from the library. It's unbelievable that there were nine seasons, more than Star Trek: The Next Generation that had seven. Della Reese sang the theme:



"I'll Walk with You." Yes, that is a lovely phrase. It surely came to mind today for the March for Life.

March for Life Pictures:

Post by The March for Life.

If only more men were brought up to be men. They should walk with their baby and the baby's mother. There would be many fewer abortions.

May God have mercy on us.

If you would like to pray for mothers, fathers, and preborn babies, please consider praying from this list from Priests for Life (my wife and I are praying the rosary one tonight).

The Big Bang Theory Theme Song Part III

(Parts one and two are here.)

The story behind making The Big Bang Theory theme song relayed an extremely fortunate turn of events for the Bare Naked Ladies.



One of my roommates in college loved the Bare Naked Ladies and Billy Joel while I liked Huey Lewis and The News and classical music (Bruckner was my favorite composer). We quite often remarked that we both had one good and one bad taste in music: Billy Joel and classical music for the good, Bare Naked Ladies and Huey Lewis and The News for the bad.

It's worth noting how the Bare Naked Ladies made it with their TV Big Bang Theory theme song and Huey Lewis and The News with their two Back to the Future movies. Well, I contend that in the final analysis Huey Lewis and The News were better since they were on the big screen while the Bare Naked Ladies were only on TV.

Well, we'll see who is still listened to in about 25 years. (Perhaps neither? That's also possible.)

The thing is, is it important to see what will survive history?

Well, an important analysis by a Jewish official, Gamaliel, after the resurrection of Jesus informs a possible answer.

Upon the Jewish leadership's attempt to squash the Jesus movement, or The Way, or the Church, he said,

So now I tell you, have nothing to do with these men, and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God. Acts 5:38-39

So, after 2000 years, the Church is still here. Perhaps, "it [indeed] comes from God."

Huey Lewis and the News' Workin' For A Livin' Part II

Besides the obvious theme of the song being the ins and outs of working for a living, another part of the song that sticks out for me is from the lyrics (spellings from a Huey Lewis and The News music book I have),

Bus boy, bartender, ladies of the night
Grease monkey, ex-junkie, winner of the fight
Walking on the streets, it's really all the same
Sellin' souls, rock n' roll, any other game

The line that gets me is, "it's really all the same".



Really? Prostitution ("ladies of the night") is along the same line of work as a bus boy, bartender, mechanic, and a rock musician?

I think it all depends for the latter list if they're OK, but prostitution? In Catholic thought, prostitution is an intrinsic evil, in other words, there is no situation where it can be morally upright or licit.

A bartender may be distributing alcohol to non-minors who are not intoxicated. A rock musician can be clean (there are Christian rock bands). Really, anything a relatively moral Christian can do is licit. But no Christian can in good conscience be a prostitute.

This comes from a bunch of places in Catholic writings, but the Bible puts it best in 1 Corinthians 6. 

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take Christ’s members and make them the members of a prostitute? Of course not! [Or] do you not know that anyone who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For “the two,” it says, “will become one flesh.” But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.

It says in the Catholic commentary (at the link above), "Against his own body: expresses the intimacy and depth of sexual disorder, which violates the very orientation of our bodies." The correct orientation of our bodies (physically) is to our spouse (if married) and to the Lord.

Our Lady of Fatima said that there are more people who descend to hell for sexual sins than for any other transgression. May Our Lady of Fatima, Mother Mary, pray for all of us that we do not sell our souls. Amen.

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Part II

It seems that the main point of Star Trek II - other than vengeance - was that, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

It is quite remarkable that this logic was set in direct contrast to Khan's vengeful passion.

In the end, however, both Spock and Khan were dead. How did their companions fare? Spock voluntarily gave his life for his companions lives and Khan took all the lives that were set about reaching Khan's personal goal.

Most people see love as a passion for the other. However, the highest form of love is to do something positive for/to another person for the others sake, not ourselves.

Jesus said, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." (John 15:13)