{"id":19969,"date":"2024-09-05T19:39:46","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T23:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=19969"},"modified":"2024-09-05T19:39:46","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T23:39:46","slug":"climbing-mountains-and-a-broken-hallelujah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=19969","title":{"rendered":"Climbing mountains and a broken Hallelujah"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hallelujah: Lucy Thomas&#039; Uplifting Song for Worship and Inspiration #shorts #inspiration\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1_CDkk8FoCY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Speaking as an old man<\/strong> who has climbed a number of metaphorical mountains of the literary sort (and zero ones of the real sort), I know how to begin a massive writing \u2013 or translation \u2013 project. At least I know what works for me. The trick, in my experience, is <strong>not to look at the mountain.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you think about the size of the mountain as you begin, you\u2019ll soon grow disheartened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You have to concentrate on today\u2019s work.<em> What will I do today? How much can I accomplish just today?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you write merely one page every day, you can produce a 365 page book in a year. (It takes me considerably longer, though, when you include revisions. But you get the point. One step at a time.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cSufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,&#8221; <\/em>as the Lord says in the Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 6:34)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyway, I\u2019ve ordered some orthopedic aids to help me sit for long periods at my laptop, and I\u2019m on the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The video above troubles me.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not because of the artist herself \u2013 Lucy Thomas, who apparently won some talent program and obviously has an astonishing voice. I like her singing very much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And not the song in itself, in particular. Leonard Cohen was in some ways the archetypal Israelite, forever wrestling with God. And this song expresses his troubled world-view in transcendent fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My problem is that somebody \u2013 as you can see from the captions \u2013 is promoting it as a <em>worship <\/em>song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dearly beloved, \u201cHallelujah\u201d is not a worship song! (I\u2019ve written some drivel about it before in this blog myself.) It\u2019s a song about sex, couched in near-blasphemous biblical imagery. It\u2019s a brilliant piece of work but it doesn\u2019t belong in your church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s disrespectful both to God (who is not being properly revered) and to the artist \u2013 whose work is being twisted in a direction he never intended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I understand the Christian impulse to turn all things to God\u2019s glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But art deserves respect for its own sake. Not to be hijacked, even by well-meaning worship leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At least give it time for the copyright to run out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking as an old man who has climbed a number of metaphorical mountains of the literary sort (and zero ones of the real sort), I know how to begin a massive writing \u2013 or translation \u2013 project. At least I know what works for me. The trick, in my experience, is not to look at &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=19969\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Climbing mountains and a broken Hallelujah<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[5313,1639,5314,5316,3187,5315],"class_list":["post-19969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-uncategorized","tag-hallelujah","tag-leonard-cohen","tag-lucy-thomas","tag-mountains","tag-translation","tag-worship-music"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19970,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19969\/revisions\/19970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}