Best first line of a song, EVER!
We were at the Nowhere Else Festival with some friends when we first heard Jeffrey Martin belt these lyrics out from the stage. Here, have a listen yourself:
Joseph Stalin came from somebody's vagina
Just like Babe Ruth and Mao Zedong and Mark Twain
and Paul Simon played catch, with his Daddy on the weekend
Just like you, Just like you, Just like me
And Adolph Hitler played with dolls in his bedroom
Quiet so his mother wouldn't hear
And he grew up to be a monster, but for a while he was a child
Let's be clear, Let's be clear, Let's be clear
And Jesus represented love in the flesh
But they said he was a man in every way
And so the evidence would suggest, that he had a thing for breasts
Just like you, Just like you, Just like me
My coquette neighbor is a banker in the city
He falls off the wagon and gets drunk on Listerine
He is shiny on the outside and broken on the inside
Just like you, Just like you, Just like me
Yeah, he is shiny on the outside and broken on the inside
Just like you, Just like you, Just like me
The song got some laughs for sure. More importantly, I feel like it stimulated some thoughts on the dignity owed to each and every human. Check this out from Google AI:
Yes, you can be said to owe someone dignity, because dignity is an inherent worth that every person possesses and that you are morally obligated to respect, even if they don't "earn" it. While some argue that respect should be earned, the idea of inherent dignity means that you are owed a baseline of decency simply by virtue of being human. This includes treating them with respect, kindness, and consideration, regardless of their actions or circumstances.
Not bad. Pretty much aligns with what I'm learning of the dignity of the human person in my Theology of the Body courses.
I've seen this type of respect on full display by a couple of women that one would think would have little of it for one another. One had an abortion under terrible circumstances. The other survived an abortion attempt in similar circumstances.
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| Rape and Abortion Survivors Unite! The story of the most unlikely friendship |
I've found nothing that illustrates the the whole thrust of Jeffrey Martin's song better than this. These two simply refuse to be offended by one another. They refuse to treat each other with disrespect. How refreshing.
This stands in glaring contrast to Charlie Kirk being murdered for what he was saying and doing. All of the offense taken into the public consciousness from Charlie evidently tanked up and burst out sideways through a deranged individual.
That is sad.
Perhaps he was a monster in some ways, I don't know, I never really followed his particular brand of activism or watched any of his college campus debates. But maybe we could add another verse to Jeffrey's song for Charlie:
Charlie Kirk spoke out for things that he believed in
He made famously infuriating pleas
But he loved his wife and kids, even with the things he did
Just like you, Just like you, Just like me.
As I listen to some of my friends speak about Charlie, I become sad about the way it comes across almost as a celebration of somebody finally getting what they deserved. "That $#%@ had it coming!!" is what I hear more often than not.
And this darkness is why Miriam and Buzz' friendship shines so brightly. Maybe we could learn something from them. They've become almost unoffendable toward each other. In fact they talk about this extensively in their tenth published phone chat. They speak of the Bible study they went through in a book by Brant Hansen.
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| The Bible Study that Buzz and Miriam Have both read and pondered as they've sought Reconciliation and recovery together |
As I've shared these concepts with friends, it has been strange to observe how becoming unoffendable is deeply offensive to so many of us. (Yes I have taken offense at the suggestion as well.)
I listened to this book, read by the author at the suggestion of Miriam and Buzz... turns out that the author is also an established radio personality and listening to him is extremely engaging. He is both witty and humorous.
But back to Jeffrey Martin and his song. I think I'm a fan of this guy now. I plan to follow him some more. This song at least is now in my campfire song rotation. That might not seem like a big deal until you consider the others in that list like T-bone Burnett, Over the Rhine, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Alison Kraus and Bruce Cockburn.
Keep writing songs Mr. Martin.
