Lenten Soundtrack Song 3: Dust In The Wind by Kansas

14Mar11

Today is a throwback. No idea these guys had a Vevo channel on YouTube. They were with it in the 70’s; they’re still with it today. You definitely have to watch the video below, especially for the big hair, tuxedo ruffles, smoke rolling across the stage, and other overt influences of glam. Which to me is counter to the idea of being mere “dust in the wind.” A better set would have been men in a barren field covered in sackcloth and ashes playing on rudimentary instruments with the lowest production budget possible. But whatever. It’s epic. And just look at these guys. You do not have to look beautiful to make beautiful music. Kansas has to be one of the ugliest-yet-successful bands of the 70’s. Love it.

I honestly don’t know much about Kansas, so for the most part I’m going simply reflect on the lyrics here, which I think are brilliant. I will say, though that this Kerry Livgren sounds interesting. A dabbler in various philosophies and religious experiences (including reading The Urantia papers), with a surprising conversion to Christianity—of the “born again” persuasion. I hope he didn’t renounce this song after his conversion. It is profoundly biblical.

There are two understandings about the self that the Judeo-Christian Scriptures seem to articulate. And they create an interesting tension. One is that we are everything on earth—the crown of Creation, the image-bearers of God, the ones by whom Creation is to be governed. Just lower than the heavenly beings surrounding the throne of the Creator. We are beautifully and wonderfully made. And that is a true and essential part of the biblical anthropology.

But the other side of the coin is that we are nothing special. Made from the stuff of the earth. We have but a breath in our nostrils. Take that away and we die. We aggregate into nations and empires which amount to mere dust on the scales, says the prophet Isaiah. A mere drop in the bucket. The psalmist says that even the rich and powerful are nothing, with the poor they are together only a breath. And this is also a true and essential part of the biblical anthropology. And this is what Kansas is singing about. Whether inspired by the Bible or not, it resonates with clarity.

I believe it was the Jewish philosopher Maimonides who said we must carry with us at all times these two understandings of the self, one in our left pocket, the other in our right. What a beautiful articulation. If we get to thinking too highly of ourselves, and esteeming ourselves better than others, we should fumble around in our left pocket for that bit of truth about our non-specialness and finitude. And if we are lowly and the mistreatment we have received begins to get into our psyche, and we start to believe it, we should fumble around in our right pocket, and grasp that truth that we have the breath of God in our nostrils, the Spirit’s spark of life lighting up our eyes, causing our hearts to beat. We are here in this time and in this place for a reason.

I think Maimonides, along the writer of Ecclesiastes, too, would have resonated with this Kansas song. I certainly do. For me, it counters the pop psychology b.s. that I heard so much growing up. I never got this message from Mr. Rogers, bless his heart, but I think my generation needed it. We wouldn’t bother anyone with our whining about how our world is falling apart when our internet connection goes down. Let’s get a hold of the big picture, folks. We ain’t nothing.

If at any time during Lent, this has to be an anthem of Ash Wednesday. “From dust you have come, to dust you shall return” says the Impositor of ashes. Recently some musically gifted folks in my faith community did this song during Sunday’s worship leading up to Ash Wednesday, and they did it beautifully. And strangely, I find there is something profoundly beautiful about the meditation upon our nothingness and finitude. The realization of my finitude seems to point to a transcendent one, that first mover, one who stands outside and is timeless and eternal. Which moves me to see God bound up in the very paradox we experience. God is this eternal one, and this temporal one. God is this uncreated first mover, and one born to Mary of Nazareth.

Is this not the human reality? Divinely sparked, yes, but mere dust in the wind.

Let’s watch this vid together, shall we.

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Tags: Ash Wednesday, Christian Theology, Dust In The Wind, Kansas the band, Kerry Livgren, Lent, Maimonides