"Everything's gonna to get lighter, even if it doesn't get better."* That's a big promise Mates of State are making in their new single "Get Better" which was just released today. And it all begins with the line "forget your politics for a while." Not an easy thing to do in presidential election year.
And how could anything get "lighter" if nothing gets "better." This seems like a strange contradiction. I assume that when things are getting lighter that they are getting better. In the same vein Jesus said that he was the light of the world (Jn 8:12), but also said there would always be poverty (Mk 14:7). How could someone claim to be just what the world needed and also claim that poverty was still going to exist?
The author Dallas Willard writes, "We are becoming who we will be forever." I wonder if what Jesus is saying, and what Mates of State are saying is that what we do might just affect the inside more than it affects the outside. Willard's quote deals with the idea that our hearts are affected and changed over time (for better or worse) in relation to our actions and feelings. And maybe that is why Jesus tells us to love our enemies, because he knows the consequences for us if we do not. And maybe that is why Mates of State and Steve Choo made the video for this song.
It's a strange video with most of the characters masked as woodland creatures. It is the bear (the enemy) that is shown having a beating heart, even though he is about to commit and act of terrorism. And why is the bear dancing with them all (in heaven?) at the end? And why is the bear given a flower at the end? It seems that the bear is being forgiven... but why? Is he forgiven because even though things haven't gotten better they have gotten lighter?
If I'm honest with myself I'm a little upset that the bear is forgiven at the end of this song. He took life, and because of that I want him to have to pay for it.
When I was 10 years old a man named Gang Lu killed 5 people and himself in a 1991 school shooting at the University of Iowa. I remember watching the local news coverage and hearing most of the family members who were interviewed say things like "he got what he deserved" or worse. But I remember one older woman, who I believe was the sister of one of the victims, saying that she was sorry that such a young man felt he had to do such a thing and that she was sorry that he had killed himself as well. And I was a bit offended by her comments. I had never seen such grace given before and I felt to be a bit scandalous.
This video seems to be asking me to deal with those sorts of feelings. To forget my politics for a while, to forget the divisions I have created between myself and others and to trust that it is getting lighter, even if things still look desperate on the news. And when I can't forget my politics and hate that the bear is given a flower at the end of the video Jesus asks me this: "are you envious because I am generous?" (Mt 20:15)
* A number of websites have reported this line as "Everything's gonna get LOUDER, even if it doesn't get better," though Mates of State's own myspace page (which is the only place any part of the lyrics can be found) has the line as I have quoted it above.
