I’ve posted another remix of one of my songs on YouTube, accompanied by another attempt at video support.
This one is about suddenly becoming aware that nothing in the familiar world is quite right. Its writing was actually prompted by a young psychotic patient who was discovered wandering around the wards of my teaching hospital in a white coat. His explanation was that, realising that everyone around him was actually dead, he may as well pretend to be dead too, and play doctors.
I decided to remix and use it now because a psychiatrist on the radio news was reporting how much more disturbance his psychotic patients are experiencing through lockdown, and he added the profound truth I’ve been alluding to since this business began – that humans are irreducibly social animals.
That thought was reinforced by an excellent in-house video by a guy from the South West Baptist Association, whose missionary friend had pointed out how his feelings (and hence those of many of us) are akin to the culture shock that kicks in a few weeks or months after missionaries go abroad. The novelty wears off, and suddenly everything seems alien and oppressive, until those feelings are gradually worked through.
What is worse, culture shock is more severe when you return home, expecting it to be warm and familiar, whereas instead it appears another alien culture: for the first time in history, the whole world is going to be experiencing that together, with unforeseeable results.
So, my song is called Imperfection, and although it may appear a series of negative, or even cynical, images, my erudite readers here may be told that it serves the same purpose as the Book of Ecclesiastes – to point to the need for, and the reality of, true perfection through the recognition of the imperfection surrounding us.
It seems to me that might, paradoxically, be an encouraging thought for many.