The alt-rock band Switchfoot has long been one of my favorite musical groups. Their album The Beautiful Letdown accompanied my freshman year, playing loudly on drives to and from high school and tennis practice in a friend’s old oil-burning, no-air-conditioner, rust-gilded Pontiac Firebird.
A handful of songs from that album have deep associations with events of my life, from the over-played radio songs “Meant to Live” and “Dare You to Move” to my personal favorite, “Gone”, about the passing nature of worldly wealth. (“Gone, like Frank Sinatra, like Elvis and his mom, like Al Pachino’s cash, nothing lasts in this life.”) And yet, one song in particular has remained a regular wrestling-match partner, like an older brother who loves you but whom you keep an eye on, because he is always up for a challenge.
The song is called “Adding to the Noise”, and while certainly neither the highest beauty nor a particular letdown of the album, it has rarely left this little brother in peace. In the repeated cheeky hook of the song, Jon Foreman sings, “If we’re adding to the noise, turn off this song.” In a bit of irony, I have at times heeded the instruction. (Or perhaps non-irony, maybe Jon was dead serious!)
In a soundbyte world so soaked with “stuff”, so flooded by a mix of fluff and occasional substance, what is the role of art? Of creating? Of trying to speak the truth? Does it simply add to the excess in our lives, contributing to the conditions that foster hyper-consumption? In a world that makes it hard for so many to make space for the primary things (like prayer and presence to one another), do even the creation and communication of good things become a part of the problem?
Or, just maybe, it is possible to be part of the remedy. To offer and tune one’s voice to the Divine Songwriter who is writing His music in, through, and beyond the sea of voices. To be joined to His medicine that enters into and makes contact with the infected place while remaining distinct from it and offering something different. To throw a life-perserver into the turbulent water, while remaining outside to help pull the overwhelmed out. Perhaps another voice need not only add to the noise, but be an invitation to step outside where we can hear each other better.
If I am adding to the noise, turn off this screen. Let’s go out where we can hear each other and move to the rhythms of the deeper music.