Upside Down and Inside Out

A new video from OK GO just got released and it's racing through social media like a viral monster. The effects are gorgeous as the quartet performs, seemingly in one take, the video in weightlessness. No wires. Just a plane with zero gravity.

I watched it a couple of times marveling at the special effects and the joyful playfulness of it all. But I paused it the third time when I started to really pay attention to the lyrics. (The bold lettering is by me).

Upside down and inside out
and you can feel it.
Upside down and inside out
and you can feel it, feel it.
Don't know where your eyes are
but they're not doin' what you said.
Don't know where your mind is baby
but you're better off without it.

Inside down and upside out
and you can feel it.
Don't stop.
Can't stop.
It's like an airplane goin' down.
I wish I had said the things you thought that I had said.
Gravity's just a habit that you're really sure you can't break.

So when you met the new you,
Were you scared?
Were you cold?
Were you kind?
Yeah when you met the new you,
did someone die inside?

Don't stop.
Can't stop.
It's like a freight train.
Don't stop.
Can't stop.
It's like an airplane goin' down.
Don't know where your eyes are
but they're not doin' what you said.
Don't know where your mind is baby
but you're better off without it.

Looks like it's time to decide.
Are you here?
Are you now?
Is this it?
All of those selves that you tried;
wasn't one of 'em good enough?

'cause you're upside down and inside out
and you can feel it.
Inside down and upside out
and you can feel it, feel it.

Don't stop.
Can't stop.
It's like a freight train.
Don't stop.
Can't stop
until you feel it goin' down.
I wish I had said the things you thought that I had said.
Gravity's just a habit that you're really sure you can't break.

Upside down and inside out
And you can feel it
Don't stop
Can't stop
Until you feel it goin' down
Upside down and inside out
And you can feel it
Don't stop
Can't stop
Until you feel it goin' down

I don't usually pause for pop music any more. Showtunes, yes, quite extensively so. But pop music hasn't touched me in years. Perhaps because we're just starting Lent, I'm sensitized. Rev. Susan Russell at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena described during her Ash Wednesday homily that we must not give up epiphanies for Lent. 

Do not give up epiphanies for Lent!
Do not become so inwardly focused that we forget to notice – to give thanks for – to respond to – those encounters we can and will have with the holy in the next 40 days. Do not become so focused on our own “journey with Jesus” that we forget that as long as there are still strangers at the gate, walking humbly with our God is not enough. Not even close to enough.

You can read the full text at ASCIdea,org . I needed to hear that sermon yesterday. So much of Lent is self-focused. When I started serving (taking on) during Lent rather than just giving up, I found myself discovering, "epiphing", so much more that just through introspection. And I needed the reminder because discernment has turned me to reflect on myself far more than normal.

Back to this song. After the awe of the visuals abated, and I listened to the words, I was struck at how important it was to be open to insights and epiphanies. This came at a wonderful time, at the start of Lent, during my discernment process. And I saw it because someone important to me for my discernment shared it online.

With Lent and with discernment, we are in a state of discovery and heightened awareness. Sometimes that process can shock or disturb. Sometimes you feel joy, and other times you need to dive ever deeper into assessing your motives and perceptions. Take the lyrics in this verse:

So when you met the new you,
Were you scared?
Were you cold?
Were you kind?
Yeah when you met the new you,
did someone die inside?

Have I met the new me? YES. This blog wouldn't exist if I didn't feel for the past several years that there's an authentic me yearning to be known, trying to be outward and overt. I pushed it away for years, especially the younger me during the times I was handling issues of sexual orientation. I pushed it away because I felt as though I was meeting a new me.

Was I scared? Yes.

Was I cold? Yes.

Was I kind? Increasingly to others, and yet not to myself.

And, when I met the new me, I was watching someone die inside.

All this is heightened during the contemplative Lenten season.  I see the world in need and I see myself more awake, more humble, more present. I'm no longer speeding through on the freeway of life, but pausing to take a picture and to ponder. But when this persisted outside of Lent, I was facing a changing understanding of me.

I don't think I'm different. I just think I'm recognizing what I'm really all about. Perhaps others have known this. I imagine that this might be why people have tolerated me even when I'm not the kindest, nicest person on the outside. Everyone has a bad day. I feel like I had a bad couple of decades. Lenten reflection and discernment draws me to better see my authentic self. 

It's not technically a new me. 

It's a revealed me.

Looks like it's time to decide.Are you here?Are you now?Is this it?All of those selves that you tried;wasn't one of 'em good enough?

And then this verse drives it home. Like the masks I referred to Ash Wednesday morning ("The Masks Come Off", they come off and we see our mortality, our humanity, our real selves.

WIth Lent or discernment, it's time to explore, but at some point it's time to decide. What do you to do with what you're discovering? Do you move towards a living out what you're discovering?

Do you go and help those who are sick, homeless, in pain?

Do you go and bring justice to those who have been put down?

Do you bring the message of Christ's healing love to those who have long grown cynical and alone.

Or... Do you sit and fall back into your dream state?

I don't intend to fall back asleep. I pray that those walking on a Lenten journey with me or who accompany me on my discernment will help me stay the course. But it's not easy.

Gravity's just a habit that you're really sure you can't break.

Let's look for ways that we together can soar through the heavens, lovingly, playfully, tossing water balloons and breaking pinatas in the sky, and see that our past selves have held us down unnecessarily.

Gravity's just a habit. We can serve others and have fun looking beyond it. Let's go out together this Lent and break our habit.





http://letallwhoarethirstycome.com/2016/02/upside-down-and-inside-out.html