There's a reason songs are popular. It's because these songs resonate with many people across boundaries and divides. These pop songs are called pop because they are popular, something about them touches on the human condition that many people can relate to.
One such song is "Roses" by the American EDM duo The Chainsmokers, featuring vocals by the American singer Elizabeth Rose Mencel, better known by her stage name Rozes.
Whenever I hear this song, I feel some sort of a nostalgia and a sense of finding something again, of rekindling a relationship, and that I'm missing something until that happens.
The song, from the video and lyrics, is about a boy and girl who are rekindling a relationship.
"Deep in my bones I can feel you," the female vocalist sings, amidst visions of a female dancer, "Take me back to a time when we knew / Hideaway." Take me back to that time when we "We could waste the night with an old film / Smoke a little weed on the couch in the backroom." The singer pines for the time when the two could hang out together, could just watch an old film and smoke together, relax. In an alternate version, the lyrics are "take me back to a time when we knew / how to be." The time when we knew how to be, when we could just sit together and just ''be.'' No agendas, no plans, no worries—just ourselves, our eyes, and our bodies. We could just be.
But that time of innocence, you could call it, has been broken. We have moved on, we had better things to do, we forgot how to just be, how to just hang out together.
In the video, it shows the man spending the night with the girl where they do light it up and make some love (there's nothing R-rated), but then it shows him in leaving the girl in the morning. He has to move on, he has plans, he has shows to catch.
When I watched that, I thought something about this isn't right. That's not the way we were meant to be. We weren't meant for hook-ups. We weren't meant to leave our partners on the couch. Instead, we were meant to ''be'', we were meant to stay with each other, to be committed to each other.
The video shows the disappointment of the two lovers now that they are apart. The girl lights some more up and wanders her apartment without purpose. The man drives away and frets.
Yet the girl, like the girl in the Song of Songs, searches for her lover and finds him. Suddenly, as the two come together, the tempo picks up and the beat drops just as they kiss. The scenes of the female dancer became more exaggerated. Rose petals fall from the sky. All is better, all has been re-united. It's a joyous occasion.
The video ends with them embraced in another kiss.
This video, I believe, is a microcosm of the human experience. It starts out searching, looking for something, then it finds that object of desire, then they are separated, and finally they are brought back together. We could call it desire, consummation, separation, and re-unification. I believe that's the story of our lives, either in our relationships with others or in our relationship with the divine.
As single people, we are always looking for that person, that person who will make our heart sing and make our dreams come true. We know that it is not "good" to be single. There is an achingness, a missingness, without that person. Then we find them, and everything is wonderful, we can be ourselves.
But unfortunately, that love is short-lived. Something comes up, our own messed up behavior draws the person away, and we are separated. What was whole is now broken.
And so we live our lives in quiet desperation. We know that ''if only'' we could be reunited with that person, it will all be well (so we think). We live our lives aimlessly and try to forget and move on.
Some of us find other lovers and are content with that. But if we are lucky, we are reunited with the ones our soul loves. And it is good. Rose petals fall from the sky. The peace and satisfaction has returned. We no longer have to wander. All is well. And it is better than the first time because we have worked through the problems that broke the relationship up. It is for the better.
So it is with God.
We start our lives looking for that something to fill us. (Those of us raised in situations where they are already connected with the divine don't necessarily have this step.) Some us find God. And it is good.
We feel like our lives are new, we have an inner peace. Everything is in harmony. It's the age of innocence.
But through the struggles of life, that relationship is neglected. We lose contact with God. We forget to pray. We find other things to distract us.
When we find him again, it is amazing. The grace has returned, our lives are clear again, we have peace.
There was a time when humanity was in relationship with God. All of us. But since that primeval time, humanity has lost that. We are broken. We sin. We kill each other. We are wandering. We search for something to fill us, but not for God.
It was God, however, that can fill that hole. Nothing else works. Other things can distract, but not satisfy. God created us with that relationship with him, but we lost it, so only he can fill it. We must be re-united with God. And when it happens, it is good.
"I'll take you to paradise
Say you'll never let me go"
God will take us to paradise and never let us go. The search will be over. Our satisfaction has been attained. We have found our home.
