I’ve been thinking a lot lately about new beginnings.
Not only where it pertains to starting a new job and moving on from this pit of a funk I have been in for the past 10 months, but also when it comes to matters of redemption for our screw-ups. It seems like every other day we turn on the news and learn about another public personality being caught in some kind of personal crisis.
This week it’s David Letterman. I love me some Dave. His dry sense of humor has always been right down my alley, and the monologue he gave his first night back on the air after 9/11 will no doubt go down as one of broadcasting’s finest moments. I was bummed this went down, but I’ve gotta say honestly not really because of Letterman’s abuse of power and sexual indiscretions in the work place, but more of how the audience responded to his mea culpa. I was appalled that they would laugh and applaud throughout his entire speech, even after it became clear he was not doing a comedy bit. Extortion and abuse of power isn’t a laughing matter, and the audience behaved as if they were a bunch of robots. It was bizarre and disrespectful.
Meanwhile, I cannot throw stones at Dave. There is none righteous. No, not one. (Romans 3:10, for those following along at home).
We seem to want to go to extremes whenever a moral dilemma arises. I observed this summer with Michael Jackson’s and Steve McNair’s deaths as one extreme group had them both frying in the pit of hell fire and brimstone (not having any confirmed idea regarding the state of their, ahem, personal relationship with God), while the other side was making jokes about the predicaments they had gotten themselves into that led to their demise.
Pardon me, but I take no joy in another man’s calamity. It grieves me.
The reason? Because we hurt ourselves and we hurt each other.
Aw, most people have good hearts and don’t mean to…but the fact is, folks, is that we are often propelled by our drives (hunger, sex, greed) and it takes us places we just shouldn’t go.
And, again, we end up hurting ourselves and we hurt each other.
If you don’t believe me, listen to Dave, who summed up his situation with such honesty and transparency:
“Inadvertently, I just wasn’t thinking ahead,” Letterman said. “My thanks to the staff for, once again, putting up with something stupid I’ve gotten myself involved in.”
“Now the other thing is my wife, Regina. She has been horribly hurt by my behavior, and when something happens like that, if you hurt a person and it’s your responsibility, you try to fix it…Either you’re going to make some progress and get it fixed, or you’re going to fall short and perhaps not get it fixed, so let me tell you folks, I got my work cut out for me.“
I think it’s absolutely great that Dave is putting himself out here as an example of a guy who has messed up bad, got busted in a really big way, but is facing it head-on, and is going to work his butt off to make it right by everybody he’s done wrong.
The cynical will say he would have kept living his “creepy” ways had he not been caught (via being extorted for $2 million by a CBS producer), and perhaps that is true…but sometimes getting caught is the best thing that can happen to a person. Sometimes that is the very thing that saves an addict from destroying themselves.
Here’s what I love about life, though: the most incredible thing…the thing that gives me so much hope…is that with each new breath we take is the opportunity for a new beginning. It’s the opportunity to make a better decision. To make right a wrong. To start anew.
I know that I have struggled with some pretty destructive patterns of behavior in my own life…and I am trying, trying, trying to make each moment a new beginning of life-giving behavior. Life-giving to my mind, body, and spirit…and to those I encounter.
No doubt I will falter. When I do, I’m going to accept the gift of the next breath and a new beginning to do better.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A song along these lines (pun intended) is “Snow (Hey Oh)” by Red Hot Chili Peppers.
At first glance, the general consensus is that the song is about addiction to drugs (cocaine, heroine), and it certainly applies; however, RHCP lead singer and co-writer, Anthony Kiedis, said, “It’s about the repeated failure to start your life anew and how difficult it can be to get rid off old ways of thinking, and destructive ideas we become so attached to.”
That is how the song speaks to me.
“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)
Yes, I just quoted the Holy Bible and Red Hot Chili Peppers in the same blog post…that’s how I roll.
Snow is symbolic of purity and starting anew. We walk through this life leaving a path of mistakes behind us, but “deep beneath the cover of another perfect wonder where it’s so white as snow,” our past is covered leaving a fresh, new path to forge ahead.
A fresh start…just a breath away.
“Snow (Hey Oh)”
(Video/music below lyrics)
Come to decide that the things that I tried
Were in my life just to get high on
When I sit alone come get a little known
But I need more than myself this time
Step from the road to the sea to the sky
And I do believe that we rely on
When I lay it on
Come get to play it on
All my life to sacrifice
Hey oh, listen what I say, oh
I got your
Hey oh, now listen what I say oh, oh
When will I know that I really can’t go
To the well once more, time to decide on
When it’s killing me
When will I really see
All that I need to look inside
Come to believe that I better not leave
Before I get my chance to ride
When it’s killing me
What do I really need
All that I need to look inside
Hey oh, listen what I say. oh
Come back and
Hey oh, look at what I say, oh
The more I see the less I know
The more I like to let it go, hey oh
Deep beneath the cover of another perfect wonder
Where it’s so white as snow
Privately divided by a world so undecided
And there’s nowhere to go
In between the cover of another perfect wonder
And it’s so white as snow
Running through the field where all my tracks will
be concealed and there’s nowhere to go
When to descend to amend for a friend
All the channels that have broken down
Now you bring it up
I’m gonna ring it up
Just to hear you sing it out
Step from the road to the sea to the sky
And I do believe what we rely on
When I lay it on
Come get to play it on
All my life to sacrifice
Hey oh, listen what I say, oh
I got your
Hey oh, listen what I say, oh
The more I see the less I know
The more I like to let it go, hey oh
Deep beneath the cover of another perfect wonder
Where it’s so white as snow
Privately divided by a world so undecided
And there’s nowhere to go
In between the cover of another perfect wonder
Where it’s so white as snow
Running through the field where all my tracks will
Be concealed and there’s nowhere to go
In between the cover of another perfect wonder
Where it’s so white as snow
Songwriters: Kiedis/Frusciante/Flea/Smith
I wanted to make you aware of a great work some 
We, as a society, have truly gone mad.
