My husband wrote this entry in response to my recent blog "pornography to my ears and soul." Thank you Trey.
It’s been an interesting week since our local newspaper published Jenice’s commentary on hearing Katy Perry’s E.T. song. In the grocery store, on the soccer field, even while riding my bike, people have come up to one or both of us to tell us that they read Jenice’s editorial. These have been people we know well and people we barely know at all. Grace, our 8th grader, has come home from school with stories of how her friends’ mothers were all talking about the editorial and how a teacher discussed it in class for a while. In another case, a friend told Jenice that her editorial was the subject of that week’s church sermon.
And we talked about Jenice’s commentary further with each other and our kids as well.
Mason, Grace, and I all had two similar initial reactions to Jenice’s editorial: (1) as she noted, we thought it was a little odd that this particular song at this particular time triggered such a strong reaction in her, and (2) we noted that there wasn’t any proposed solution – no call to action.
As the week went on, I began to see Jenice’s commentary differently, however. I realized that, although it did not include a call to action, that may be for the best. When I originally read her essay, I had anticipated that she would end her observations on pop music lyrics with some instruction on what we should do about the problem. I think a part of me felt a little let down by the lack of a hopeful message on what we could do.
But the truth is that we don’t need another “war on” anything. It seems that every time we try to strongly oppose something, whether in sports, in business, in politics, or in popular culture, our actions only provoke equally strong reactions. So maybe we don’t need a rallying cry, a call to action, so much as a call to sanity. And that is exactly what Jenice’s editorial was – a call to sanity.
It’s simply not a very controversial statement: As enticing as the beats can be, popular music often encourages an unhealthy world view for the consumption of our youth. And yet we collectively continue to generate and consume that music. Why? I am not against the artists, and certainly not against the freedom of expression, but I am intrigued at the choices that we make collectively, especially when those choices are harmful to us in some way.
So, now I am grateful that Jenice’s message did not include instructions on solving the problem and I am grateful that she acted on her impulse – even if all of us, Jenice included, are baffled by “Why that song? Why now?”
I think that is enough that Jenice trusted her strong emotional response enough to put it into words and then put those words into print. By shining a light on an issue that we all know is there, but are usually numb to, maybe she helps us take the opportunity to be a little more conscious in our choices, a little more sane. And if the ripple effect of her editorial is any indication, the simple act of sharing an emotional response when we are genuinely moved to do so may be one of the most powerful actions around.
~Trey Cutler
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