This is why it rocks to be home.
~
Urchin: (on his way to get his haircut) Am I a child or an adult?
Chana: You're over the age of 13. Obviously you're an adult.
Urchin: Yeah, but I mean, which coupon should I cut out?
Chana: Oh. Cut out both of them and ask the lady at the store. You're probably an adult.
*
Chana: Why haven't you got your haircut?
Taran: Iz, the guy who cuts our hair, moved to California. I called Daddy and he said he didn't want girls cutting our hair.
Chana: It's funny how I thought there was no possible way you could answer that question without my having to yell at you.
Taran: (shrugs) Well, we got plenty of exercise.
*
Chana: (after having a very sad conversation with Taran) So, what do you think?
Taran: (shaking head while folding laundry) You've gotta respect what people do.
Chana: Hmm. I hear. Any more words of wisdom?
Taran: There, on the radio. "Never say never." Those are words of wisdom.
*
Taran: You ever heard the ten percent luck, twenty percent skill song?
Chana: Yeah; what's that called again?
Taran: Never mind what it's called; see, that part of the song is good, but the rest is full of bad words.
Chana: Aha. I know "Dead And Gone" is your favorite song. Why?
Taran: Most of the lyrics are good.
Chana: Yeah? What's it about?
Taran: It's a guy who has done bad things but isn't going to do them anymore.
Chana: So basically it's about teshuva.
Taran: (nods sagely) Yup. It's about teshuva in the black world.
Chana: (laughs admiringly) Teshuva in the black world.
*
*Insert Dustfinger playing flawless piano by ear for half an hour- basically covers of popular songs currently on the radio, all of them majorly prettified*
7 comments:
do you think Sheryl Crow's If It Makes You Happy is about a dilemma of whether doing something that makes you happy ("...it can't be that bad") is really the right thing to do ("...then why the h are you so sad"), in other words, a quest which may lead you to teshuva?
Anon 3:43,
Have to tell you I don't know much Sheryl Crow (the only other thing I can think of by her is "The First Cut Is The Deepest" which was originally Cat Stevens) so I went off to listen to the song...and to find the lyrics.
If it makes you happy
It can't be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad
Interesting. I wouldn't consider it a song that is specifically about teshuva in the same way "Dead and Gone" is. I think she's questioning how it can be that something that supposedly makes you happy can simultaneously make you miserable, but I don't think that necessarily points to whatever it is that a person has done being a bad thing.
For instance, let's say you want to divorce your husband but you also love your little son. So it may make you happy to get out of a marriage that's not working (divorcing one's husband) but it makes you miserable/ sad to cause your little boy to grow up as a child of divorced parents. The same action (the divorce) is causing you to be both happy and sad, but that's not a situation where one ought to be doing teshuva; it's just a situation where through one action one causes differing ripple effects.
By the way, while on the theme of Jewish-themed songs, The Gift by Blue is a perfect example of a song with extremely Jewish themes.
Here are the lyrics. It's basically R' Dessler's philosophy in a pop song.
From there:
And the gift is what you get by givin' more than you receive.
And you're learnin' fast that maybe this is how you'll be happy.
'Cause in takin' everything you lost, the air you need to breathe.
But in givin' it away, you found the precious thing you seek.
And it's better by far to do what you do now.
And leave the rest to love.
Just be strong in who you are.
Once you start on that road.
You're safe in the knowledge.
That anyway you go.
Will lead you home lead you home
Urchin (and Taran) definitely has (have) the maturity of an adult--but for the coupon's sake, he's (they're) still a youth
"The Gift" is good, however Foo Fighters really captured Rav Dessler's original idea of his Kuntres HaChessed regarding how giving leads to love
From the song "Times Like These":
it's times like these you learn to live again
it's times like these you give and give again
it's times like these you learn to love again
it's times like these time and time again
See...you give first then you love.
can't forget the Byrds "Turn, Turn, Turn" = Koheles
Another thought- there's Beautiful by the Christian band creed which is an amazing depiction of "sheker ha'chein v'hevel ha'yofi."
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