Of Lullabies and Love Songs

On Wednesday, October 1, 2014 at a quarter after seven, the Greenville College Blackroom was filled with fog, loud music, and excited college students, just waiting for the show to begin.  When the first band, LED, took the stage, the audience crowded close to the stage, not wanting to miss a single word, despite the speakers blasting throughout the room.  As they began playing through their set, I casually noted that each of the four songs they played seemed to be a sort of love song.  Being a self-proclaimed hopeless romantic, however, I thought nothing of it at first, simply enjoying their sound and getting lost in the music.  Once the second band, Nick Bifano and the Innocents, started playing, I noticed that while their style was very different from LED, the topic was much the same.  Again, we heard a set consisting of songs mostly about love.

In a society so focused on being in a relationship, I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that so many songs being written and sold are of the romantic variety.  They tend to be some of the easier ones to write as many people have experience with relationships, both good and bad, and they are easy to sell because everyone can relate to what they are talking about.  Even those like myself who have never had a “significant other” can find connections between the lyrics and other types of relationships, or, if nothing else, the longing for a relationship like the song speaks of. 

Perhaps it is the vast array of styles these songs can take on.  There are softer melodies, mournful tunes, angry choruses, and so on.  There is almost no limit to the form a love song can take, so long as it tells the right kind of story.  In a way, these songs have become the “lullaby” for our generation.  Those who listen to music when going to bed listen to these crooning melodies to fall asleep.  Also, the lyrics of many of these songs are known by thousands of young people all around the world, much like lullabies were to our parents.  (This is not to say that the only music our parents listened to were lullabies, nor that the only music any of us listen to are love songs.)

Even so, there are a multitude of other topics that songs could be written about, so why is it that love songs tend to be so popular among our society?

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Photo Credit: http://bestquotesaboutlife.org/wp-content/uploads/life-quotes-music-is-what-feelings-sound-like.jpg

Feed the Hungry

Box after box of Macaroni and Cheese, countless crates of Beef Stew, and enough cans of applesauce to cover most of the floor.  The mind most likely makes the assumption that I am at some sort of supermarket, perhaps Sam’s or Walmart, however, I am actually volunteering at the Food Pantry.  On Tuesday, September 30, 2014, as part of Global Impact Week, I had the opportunity to help the Greenville Food Pantry move to a new location.  This involved moving heavy boxes, sorting Jell-O, stacking canned goods, and much more.

When I arrived, I expected to find a group of students already hard at work, however even though six other students had signed up to help, the only other person from Greenville College to show up was Christy Dashiell, the Director of World Outreach and Missions.  As we restocked the shelves, I was reminded of the Food Pantry in my hometown.  Like this one, most donations come from major food corporations, but only after those running the Food Pantry have requested them.  The only exception tends to be when the Boy Scouts or some other organization holds a canned food drive to benefit the Food Pantry.  These do not happen anywhere near frequently enough, however, to provide enough supplies to go to everyone who is in need, so supplies often have to be carefully rationed or people have to be turned away.  Also, since most people host “food drives,” many Food Pantries are lacking in other supplies essential to every day life, such as soap, paper towels, and similar items.  All too often, even if we do take the time to volunteer or donate items, we don’t look past the surface to find out what is truly needed or take the time to really invest in the people we are helping.

Why is this so often the case?  Why are the plenty of volunteers for other things, but not for helping those we quietly label “undesirable”?  With all of the blessings we have been given, we should be able to at least spare some our time, even if we don’t have the money to be able to donate.  If one takes into consideration Matthew 25:40-45, we should be jumping at the opportunity to help these types of people.

⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ ⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ ⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ ⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’” (New International Version, emphasis added)

Why do we tend to ignore these types of people and their problems as well as many of the organizations that give them assistance, instead of helping them?  How can you reach out and make a difference in the lives of people like them?

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Bible Passage taken from Biblegateway.com, New International Version

Photo Credit: http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-feed-the-hungry-2.png

A Sea of Smiles

An Adventure Begins

It’s Monday, August 25, 2014. The room is full of smiling, eager faces, all ready for the start of another exciting day of Greenville College New Student Orientation. We’ve explored the campus, looked over our schedules, made new friends, and yet we’re still ready for more. 

Something important. 

Something that will really matter when the day is over.

“Take a seat,” they say. “Find your COR group.” Chaos ensues as hundreds of freshman and transfer students try to get to the right table. Once seated, we learn that we are headed to East St. Louis to do various service projects at the Jackie-Joyner Kersee Center, a few other non-profit organizations, and several of the local schools. While some were less than thrilled at the thought of traveling to East St. Louis, an area well known for its high crime rate, most were thrilled at the idea of being able to serve in an area where help was truly needed and appreciated. With spirits high, we load into the buses and embark on the first part of our adventure.

Bumps in the Road

After everyone has eaten lunch, we are split up into groups and sent off again in buses to visit a few of the schools and plant trees to symbolize unity and growth between our two communities. Once we arrived, however, we realized that while we were ready and excited to plant trees and the school was ready and excited to have us, the trees had somehow missed the memo and were not there, ready and waiting, for us to plant them. Refusing to let that slight problem get in our way, we instead were led on a tour of the school, learning its history and the history of its students.

Eventually, the trees come and we get them planted before returning to the Jackie-Joyner Kersee Center. There we began mending fences, moving bleachers, spray-painting lockers, and much more. To end the day, we started games of basketball, volleyball, and Frisbee with some of the kids in the community before loading into buses once more and returning home.

We encountered bumps along the way, but we came out smiling.

The Outcome of the Adventure

A week later, I still remember the tree haiku my group wrote, how heavy the bleachers were as we carried them across the field, the sense of accomplishment when my group successfully planted our tree, and how good it felt to be out of the heat when we were finally done. A year from now, or even a month, though, I won’t remember any of those things. Instead, what I will remember is something many people might find insignificant, but that had a huge impact on me.

 I will remember the smiles. 

The smiles we received as we walked past a classroom full of students who stopped what they were doing to wave at us. Yes, all of us in our brand new orange t-shirts who have never truly known what it is to go without.

The proud grins of the shop class as they explain their yearly project of building a home for someone in need.  Even though they don’t have much, they are giving everything they have when all to often those of us with considerably more also give considerably less.

The excitement written all over the face of the superintendent as he told us about the progress their school was making, the impact it was having, and how thrilled he was that our group would be returning to help with their tutoring program.  A man who invests himself in the school, the students, and the community day after day, while we were headed home and would return only every once in a while.

A Challenge is Given

How is it that the people with so little are usually the ones willingly giving so much, and why is it that the people with so much are too often the ones unwilling to give even a little? If I can only accomplish one thing in my life, my goal is to convince as many people as I can to give as much as they can.

What ways will YOU choose to impact the world around you?

It could be something as simple as a smile.

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It's been a while since I updated my blog (9 months... yeesh) and I am now a college student! This is a blog post I wrote for my Humanities I class, telling about our service project during NSO (New Student Orientation).  Hopefully, there will be more of these to come!

Photo Credit: http://www.imagesbuddy.com/images/87/2013/08/dont-forget-to-smile-sticky-note-graphic.jpg