Meditation ~ Imagination and the Divine

As a songwriter, something about stream of consciousness styled lyrics feels right. I've never been happy with a song when I understand what it's "about." Although I enjoy listening to songs with concrete storytelling, something about that approach makes me feel "boxed in."

For a long time, I wondered if being random was just about getting a reaction out of the listener. Sure it felt right and worked, but it made me feel a bit like a charlatan or provocateur. Years later, after converting to Catholicism and thinking about songwriting in light of my faith, I realized that I could make sense of my experience in light of Catholic theology.

What my heart longs for is an encounter with the transcendent; Catholics believe that God is transcendent. He is revealed by creation, yet His grandeur transcends it. There is a "something more" about God that no relationship, career, lifestyle, dream vacation, or work of art will ever fully communicate. Stream of conscious lyrics, through surprising combinations and juxtapositions of imagery, can stretch our minds and experience just a bit. We can catch a fleeting glimpse of God who mysteriously unites all things in Himself, and defies our (comparatively) feeble minds.

Much of the Alternative/indie rock I listen to has lyrics that are styled in this way. You don't quite know what the song is about, but it hits you in a powerful way. When I was younger, I elevated my favorite songwriters to the status of prophets/prophetesses. I wondered if they had understood something about reality that I didn't; I turned songwriting into a kind of gnostic religion. As a Catholic, I now know to reject gnosticism in all of its forms. There is no other "reality" than the one common to all of us. As a result, there are no actual experiences that could directly inspire the mysterious lyrics of my favorite songwriters. Those songwriters were/are living in the same everyday world I live in. What they allowed themselves to do, is let their imaginations run wild.

Imagination, while not directly corresponding to concrete experience, can still be in a sense "real." At its best, it can be a response to the Holy Spirit, who plants a desire for "something more" in our hearts. That "something more," God in Heaven, does exist. As Paul explained, we see Heaven imperfectly reflected in creation, like looking at the image of a person in a dirty mirror instead of looking directly at them. Paul says that finally, one day, we will see "face to face." The long wait will be over, and we will definitively encounter the One we longed for while on our earthly sojourn.

In the meantime, art is cathartic. It can never substitute for God, but it can help satisfy our need for "something more," the God who transcends the world as we know it. For me, stream of conscious (random!) lyrics help me best access my imagination. In a mysterious way they bring me into contact with the Truth, more than anything "real" could.