The Theology of Lady Gaga

As the title suggests, I am indeed combining theology and pop culture in a slightly unexpected way.  Recently I've fallen in love with the song "Born This Way" by none other than the inimitable Lady Gaga.  If you haven't listened to the song, you definitely should.  And if you have can't comprehend the words, then you should watch the video so you'll understand my points:

"It doesn't matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M."  Wait, Lady Gaga's singing about God?!?  Mom didn't initially believe me when I told her, but I assured her that yes, Lady Gaga was gettin' involved in religion.

The first verse is about self-love and believing in yourself.  I used to think love of self was a bad thing, because Jesus was so selfless and all, and His main commandmant was all about loving others, right?  Wrong.  "Love others as you love yourself."  I remember the Sunday School class when this message was conveyed in a new light to me - before you can truly love others, you have to love yourself and know that God has blessed you.  While Lady Gaga doesn't go that deep in this verse, I think it's important to realize that yes, self-love can be a good thing.

And then the chorus is just so motivational.  "I'm beautiful in my way, cos God makes no mistakes."  God IS perfect.  So why are we so busy criticizing His work?  Even if it doesn't make sense (sorry platypus) it is still NOT a mistake.  God knew/knows/will always know what He's doing.  Society (which is SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED and therefore can't be absolute truth) might not think you're beautiful, but you are. 

"I'm on the right track baby I was born this way."  I'm not here to get into nature vs. nurture, but nature truly affects things, and you were born that way for a reason.

"Don't hide yourself in regret, just love yourself and you're set."  It's true.  This is true for me.  It's easy to regret things and to want to go back, but hindsight is always 20/20.  If you love yourself and love God, you'll have confidence to do the right things, to always move forward, and to keep trying.

"Don't be a drag, just be a queen."  At first I didn't like this part musically, but eventually the lyrics won me over.  Point 1) sitting around and saying that shows (drag or otherwise) are no fun is quite boring, aka you're being a drag.  Point 2) It would be much more fun to be yourself and/or be a queen.  Just saying.

The second verse doesn't necessarily make sense to me, but parts of it resonate well.  It's also where I have my biggest issue.  Up until this point, Lady Gaga is making a broad statement that sits well with me.  However, now she decides to tell us what God thinks.  And I'm just not cool with that - I don't care if you ARE Lady Gaga and practically queen of the world.  I do not believe that the Bible provides conclusive, incontrovertible evidence for 'different lovers' (which I take to mean queer people), so until God definitely tells us what He wants, I personally (IMHO) believe that we need to love everybody.  I believe in a loving God, a God available to everyone. 

Moving on before religious rambling/ranting begins . . . the bridge is wonderful.  I pretty much shout the words every time.  I love how she associates ethnic/racial differences with sexuality, because I think those two 'methods of categorization,' if you will, are quite comparable.  Then she goes on to say that no matter what happened, no matter what life threw at you, you can and should still love yourself. 

That probably revealed a lot more about me than about Lady Gaga, but really I think this song provides me with a good avenue for sharing a bit more openly about some of my personal beliefs.  I am in, as I call it, the "free love" stage of my life, which basically means I have found absolutely no reason why I should not love everyone I meet and respect who they are.  It's often easier said than done (i.e. the upcoming post about my growing road rage . . . oops!), but with Christ all things are possible.

Surprise!

I definitely failed to reach my goal last week, but it’s another week and another chance for me.  Hopefully I will improve.  J

This weekend I was part of a surprise birthday celebration for my friend Erin, a coworker at Urban.  It was quite fun – perhaps not as much for poor Erin, who was subjected to a 45-minute, blindfolded ride in the van.  Meanwhile, I was busy cleaning my room and bed, which is no easy feat, making a Funfetti cake, and cutting up veggies for some epic sandwiches.

At last the birthday girl arrived, and the festivities began!  Of course, we spent half of lunch talking about the kids from work and entertaining my brother with imitations of the children.  When together, the four of us (Danielle, Erin, Mari, and myself) struggle to speak of anything except the children; work is the main thing we have in common, so naturally we exchange stories of cute/annoying kids. 

We spent the afternoon at Gruene, the historic district for New Braunfels.  Despite residing in NB for almost two years, I had not yet spent an afternoon in Gruene.  Quite frankly, I never quite understood the charm or the draw of the place; then again, I’m not generally one for moseying around and admiring clothes five times too expensive for me.  However, it turns out that wandering around with friends and trying on silly hats is FUN.  ;)

We came home for a bit, and the girls fell asleep on our couches, which was quite entertaining.  Ten we dressed up and headed out again.  I spent about 10 minutes preparing for the night out – I’d applied makeup once already, brushed my hair in the morning, and considered myself ready.  ;) 

We ate at the Gristmill after a long but pleasant wait.  They provided live music and we provided the Phase 10 cards, so the time passed rather quickly.  At last we were seated, and I sampled chicken fried steak, which, despite my professed vegetarianism, I found to be quite tasty. 

 

Then, Erin ordered a strawberry shortcake dessert, and, like good friends, we helped her eat it. 

P.S.  A not so subtle hint:  I've always wanted a surprise birthday or surprise something.  Just going to throw that out there.  :D

Float on . . .

I've had plenty of opportunities to reflect lately, and it’s hard to reflect too long without the image of my cousin Anna floating on to better places.  When I let those reflections take a darker, more existential route, I reach the upsetting realization that I had a chance to write to Anna in the month before she floated on, and I didn’t.  Now, looking back, all things considered, it hurts to realize I had that open-ended invitation to write something back to her, and that I never did.

Our exchange went like this:  “Happy Birthday Anna!” etc, and she responded (yes, she took the time to respond to me!) with “Thanks Laura!  Hope you’ve been having a good summer.  I remember reading it thinking, I should really reply.  But then something stopped me; I was petrified by what to say and by every way my words could potentially be misconstrued or misinterpreted; I worried that nothing I said could be significant to her.  Somewhere in all that hesitation, I never responded.  I forgot that important part where you actually transfer those thoughts to the computer and push the send button.

There’s so much I wish I had said.  Instead, my fear and my pride held me back from communicating with a cousin with only months to live.  Instead, I always meant to write her and never got around to it, and then suddenly Dad sat us down, looked at us, and said Anna was floating on.  Instead of being all caught up in myself and my worries, I should have thought about Anna and how my words of encouragement, support, and admiration, could have possibly brightened her day. 

“Dear Anna,” I might have said, “You are an amazing young woman.  You are so beautiful and strong.  You’re selfless, brave, and incredibly loving.  You’ve inspired me with your hope, peace, and love, and you’ve touched a million people.  I’m praying for you and your family, and I know you all will stay strong and continue to lean on God.  Keep fighting, Anna.  You’re amazing.  Love, Laura.”

Instead, nothing.  Now, instead of beating myself up over this, I’m learning.  Anna continues to impact my life and to teach the meaning of friendship and love.  Thanks to Anna, I’ve come to appreciate friends, family, and love even more, and as a result, I’ve realized you should always take that time to reach out to your friends, even if it is to just say hi.

It only takes two minutes to enter someone’s life again.  Thanks to technology, all you have to do is log into Facebook, search a friend, and leave a little note on the wall.   I’m trying to leave notes on friends’ walls when I haven’t seen them for months, or even years.   I text random people just to say hi, how are you.  So I’m challenging you to reach out to your friends again.  Take the time to say hi, to ask a few questions, to show you remember them and that you care.  You never know what could have happened in their lives or when they’re going to float on.

Because God works in mysterious ways.

Float on, Anna Lee Basso, float on.

Resolution

Ahem.  I hereby publicly and resolutely resolve to blog not once but THREE times a week until school starts, at which point I hope the habit will be firmly established and readily continued. It's not lack of ideas, really, or lack of cute, innocent stories from camp, but rather a lack of dedication and the occasional struggle to find the right voice for a blog.  There's also the issue of filtering - what exactly should be public?  Should I share the deeper musings and hope that people stay interested, or should I stick to less profound and more to the amusing?

Writing is such an interesting thing.  I still love it immensely, but blogging is a different area, and I'm still understanding how to make it work for me.  What are my goals for blogging?  Partially it serves to keep people - such as grandparents and friends from Oregon and Denison - updated on my new and exciting life at Grinnell, but I also want to share a little more, to give myself a voice, however small and sarcastic, in the big bad world of the internet.

So while I muse on what next to post, take a look at my post from Urban Connection.  I can't believe five weeks have flown by already - only three more with the kids who have brought so much joy into my life.  <3

Hello World

Hello world.

I am still working hard with the kids in San Antonio.  It’s a challenging but rewarding job, and, remarkably, each weekend I start to miss the kids and to look forward to returning to work.  I miss the giggles, smiles, and incredible cuteness.  J  Two examples: yesterday I told three five-year-olds that I was leaving for the day, and in unison they screamed, “NOOOOOO.”  I felt loved and appreciated.  Then, on Thursday, two girls were clinging to me and holding my hands with near death-grips, when one of them, Elysa, looked up on me and said, “I love you.  I’m gonna miss you!”  This was promptly followed by an “I love you” from Melanie. 

And then I started thinking about the end of the summer, and I realized I will miss all the kids quite a bit.  Also, to be honest, I’m a bit tired of waking up talking to imaginary kids.  J  It’ll be hard to leave those cute faces and those constant hugs, BUT . . . I’ll be leaving those hugs for a much bigger and much missed one . . .

You see, I love my summer job and the break from school and being with family, but I am so excited to be back in Grinnell.  I’m ready for the work again, the new classes, the exciting times with friends . . . and to be with my wonderful boyfriend, Klevi, again.  Now that’ll be one big hug.  ;)

Speaking of Klevi . . . he turned the big 21 last Wednesday.  I was sad I missed the celebration – it’s a big American milestone, but he reminded me that in Albania, 21 doesn’t mean much.  I can’t wait to be back in Grinnell to hang out with Klevi – we play ping-pong, race in Free Cell, watch movies, study together, and watch sports, among many other things.  I miss all of our time together, and I’m quite, QUITE excited to be back at school.  <3