An article in today’s BBC online news site carries the following headline: Flu ‘could wipe out 62 million’. That’s a lot of people. I gasped as I read through line after line about the imminence of a flu epidemic of that magnitude. Damn…life is short…and for 62 million of us it could be shorter than short. According to the BBC article, ninety-six percent of flu epidemic deaths will occur in the poorest countries. With a minimum of quality living conditions, medical facilities and the like…a fair number of those 62 million deaths could probably be avoided. We live in an era of unparalleled material wealth, yet we do not yet possess enough wisdom or compassion to see disproportionate wealth for the curse it is.

My relationship with Shawn Colvin’s music began when I hitchhiked across the country from Minnesota to Seattle in 1997. I had a small rucksack for my clothes and a few books. One memory in particular lives vividly in my mind. As a South Dakota sun began to set, I spotted a small grove off trees just off the highway, adjacent to a trickling creek.

As I sat down in the tall, haphazardly grown grass, mosquitoes attacked me as though my vagabond presence proved a significant offense on their normally undisturbed rogue habitat. Luckily, I had the blue tarp that my parents had given me for my birthday weeks before. I pulled it over my head, trading the cool summer breeze for the stagnant heat of my own body. (I wished to sweat beneath a plastic tarp rather than listen to mosquitoes as they drew enough blood from me to supply a Red Cross truck load of transfusions.)

Fumbling through my rucksack, reaching for my yellow Sony Walkman, I put the ear bud headphones in my ears. I pressed the button marked with a triangle turned on its side: play. Several songs into the mix tape I’d listened to more than a hundred times already I heard the beginning of Shawn Colvin’s “Steady On.” Of all the songs on this tape “Steady On” spoke to me most, and more so than ever on this evening in particular.

Here are the lyrics:

Steady On
S. Colvin – J. Leventhal

China gets broken
And it will never be the same
Boats on the ocean
Find their way back again
I am weaving
Like a drunkard
Like a balloon up in the air
I am needing a puncture and someone
To point me somewhere
I’m gonna keep my head on straight
I just hope it’s not too late
Open up the gate I go straight on, steady on

I was feeling imploded
A wooden smile, a wooden heart
The things exploded
Like rockets in the dark
Now I’m pulling out splinters
And I’m off to hibernate somewhere
For the nuclear winter
Of another love affair

Cause he seemed like a miracle
I ate it up like cereal
But it was something like shrapnel

It’s like ten miles of a two-lane
On a South Dakota wheat plain
In the middle of a hard rain
A slow boat or a fast train
I am gonna keep my head on straight
I’m gonna keep my head on straight

Steady On!

Strange, this blog post began as a review of Colvin’s new album “These Four Walls.” I started to write and memories flooded back. Shucks…and it would’ve been so easy to transition from “Steady On” to “These Four Walls.” Maybe if you listen to the album yourself, you’ll see what I mean.

Rick Warren, the author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” according to an article in the December 9th issue of the Economist, has made it his mission to tackle AIDS. As it turns out, he is in the minority among some of his evangelical colleagues. While Warren seeks to help those who are suffering from AIDS, Jerry Falwell and others are uncomfortable with the notion of seeing AIDS as anything more than God punishing sexual immorality.

Warren has also taken heat for inviting politicians like Barack Obama to join the fight. Warren took an AIDS test to set an example and encouraged Obama to do the same. According to the Economist, “Mr. Warren’s invitation to the Democratic senator (who dutifully submitted to a mouth swab for HIV) brought a rebuke from conservative churchmen and commentators who object to his attitude to abortion,” as though abortion were the only social issue of any importance to anyone. Obama’s speech included admonitions like, “we are dealing with flesh and blood men and women and not abstractions.”

Warren’s actions and his thick skin to the remarks of extremist evangelicals are hopefully a sign of more to come. He appears to be in the same vein as Joel Hunter, who recently stepped down as president-elect of the Christian Coalition because of resistance he encountered in trying to expand the scope of the Coalition’s mission. Hunter wanted to bring issues like minimum wage and the environment to the table. It didn’t fly this time, but the times, they are a changin’ folks. I’m not an evangelical myself, but I’m excited for what happens to the future of evangelicalism when they decide there are one or two important social issues in the realm of Jesus’ message and ministry.

Check out this thoughtful discussion between Lars Clausen, a friend of mine from Holden who wrote “Straight into Gay America,” and Dr. David Glesne who wrote “Understanding Homosexuality.” Usually discussions from either side of this issue are far too disrespectful to be of any use to anyone. Glesne and Clausen have both been very careful to respect each other’s view points while being clear about disagreements. Perhaps their discussion would even before pertinent if Clausen and Glesne were both gay, but many of the people who comment and have contributed to the discussion are both straight and gay…and some are parents or relatives of gay folks. Clausen’s blog is a must-read! http://larsclausen.blogspot.com/