Amazing grace

Amazing Grace is among my favorite songs. For some reason, I especially like it when played (well) on bagpipes. If I can't have bagpipes, then I want strings. Listening to it, with or without lyrics, gives me chills. It is one of the first "real songs" I learned to play (not especially well) on my keyboard (on the 'strings' setting). Its lyrics are actually troubling the way they're usually interpreted though. You can be as obnoxious, as downright positively evil as you like, for as long as you like, throughout your life. Then halleluiah open your eyes to the [biblical 3-in-1 true] god, recognize the 'gift of grace' from this particular 'loving god' and you're good to go to your 'reward' (where you'll worship the 'loving god' for 10,000 years, and then 10,000 more).

Hundreds of versions of this song exist on YouTube. This one for instance, gives me a tremendous headache in less than a minute. (It is far too sharp, too shrill for my ears.) It also has 'lyrics' that I am not at all sure are original. This presentation, on the other hand, is painfully touching, painfully moving. Of course we miss our loved ones when they die. It hurts. We would like to think they're "in a better place". Why though? Why can't we make here, now be the better place? Yes, it takes work and effort. Not a 'free gift'. A free gift is usually worth about what you pay for it; haven't you noticed that? When someone dies, I am glad to know they will live on in my memories, in my thoughts. I know they're no longer in pain; no longer suffering (even if I didn't know they were agonizing over anything). They are at rest, they are at peace.  

Slave trader, John Newton wrote the words in 1772. Newton didn't actually become a 'Christian' in his mind until many years later. Newton's tract on slavery (1788) did eventually lead England to outlaw slavery in all of Great Britain in 1807. Newton died later that year. The poem was set to the tune of New Britain in 1835 by William Walker. 

To me, the song itself first off suggests that I am a "wretch". I disagree, but know that is one of the teachings of most "churches". We individually (somehow) inherited guilt and responsibility from an ancient ancestor (who didn't actually exist) who ate a 'wrong' kind of fruit. We won't even go into how the rib woman and mud man were not told the rules beforehand, nor that they were tempted to eat the forbidden treat by a talking snake. Or whose idea of reward is constant, unending praise of a supernatural, all powerful entity?  No, not now. This is about one of my favorite songs. 

The song to me represents a beautiful awakening to reason, to critical thinking, to skeptical inquiry, to common sense.

Growing Up

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

That saved the mind in me.

I once was lost, but now I've found

That they all lied to me.

I was too young to think the truth,

But now my mind is free.

Was cowed, but now I see.

Was blind, but now I see.

It's one of my favorite songs.