meant to live

“What is true happiness?” asks Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman. “Is it a comfortable four-door sedan with tinted windows? Does it mean I have 2 or 3 children and a beautiful wife and live in a great neighborhood? Everyone has their own version of what happiness means, but many of the things we’re going for, and I include myself in this, are absurd. There’s this moment in Jewish scripture, in Ecclesiastes, where it says, ‘Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.‘”Happy is a Yuppie Word” that takes its title from a 1991 interview Bob Dylan gave to Rolling Stone in which Dylan was asked, on the occasion of his 50th birthday, if he was happy. Dylan replied, “Those are yuppie words, happiness and unhappiness. It’s not happiness or unhappiness, it’s blessed or unblessed.” Foreman bemoans corporate product branding and marketing. “We are the target market / We set the corporate target,” he sings. “That song is about how one of the most beautiful intimate moments in a human’s life is used to sell a can of beer or auto parts. Sex is easier than love.“

My thoughts and sentiments personified thru the music of Switchfoot. There is only so much rage you can have pent up in your system; there is only so much verbal vulgarity to compensate for our losses thru injustices towards us; there is only so much we can chant about our plights; before we realize that there is so much that we could have done with our lives.

Switchfoot reminds me of Rage Against the Machine- without the Rage. I was utterly impressed with their musical purpose and ideals. A band that is for social justice and blinding the world from maddening materialism deserves all my respect and support.

As silly as this sounds, I ‘felt’ the touch of God from their music. It was not so much of the Jesus Christ kind of touch that everyone who has ever gone to church or christian camps would be convinced that they felt. It was more on an inspirational level. Those sort that makes me want to do something substantial with my life that will contribute towards the betterment of society. Social movement has always been an essential part of my purpose in life. A world that is void of poverty, greed and injustice. What have I actually done on my part to improve the state of world?

Nothing.

I feel helpless. Useless. Self-centered. I can’t help but those sentiments haunt me every so frequently. I have experienced so much. I have taken so much from the world, but I am not able to contribute anything to make even a person’s life better.

Switchfoot reminded me of my purpose. Of my ideals. Of everyone besides myself.

I believe that, beyond myself, there is a greater purpose in life. One that is not self-serving. One that is self-sacrificial. We have been brought up in a world whereby self-perservation is the underlining point of utilitarianism. This ought not to be the case. If everyone is more willing to give than to take, then the global disparity would be deservingly, shortlived.

It was funny how when I was just rocking out on the main floor of Switchfoot’s show when something which happened 5 years ago struck my mind. There used to be a high school teacher who brought me into the whole Christianity bit, told me that she had a dream (Christians will love this) in which there was a dude who was sharpening a blunt arrow and I was in her dream. She told me that she was convinced by the prompting of the Holy Spirit that her dream was a vision from the good Lord. I was the blunt arrow and since I was Jesus’ homeboy, the dude was shaping me up for greater purposes in life- hence the sharpening. Nothing short of Hilarious, and I brushed her off as a pyschotic Klan member.

Regardless if her visions were true, I believe that I am indeed being shaped by an invisible hand. No words can fathom my adventure thus far in the United States. Like one end of a beer bong, I am constantly absorbing everything that comes my way.

Someday, like the other end of a beer bong, I will need to give everything back. And when that day comes, I will gladly return everything and even more. Everyone deserves a shot at what I have experienced.

There will not be a beautiful letdown.