Mad World

Image source: www.wallpaper77.com

All around me are familiar faces, worn out places, worn out faces

Bright and early for their daily races, going nowhere, going nowhere

Their tears are filling up their glasses, no expression, no expression

Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow, no tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad

The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had

I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take

When people run in circles it’s a very very mad world…

I remember the first time I heard this song as interpreted by Adam Lambert… it was so simple yet eerily beautiful. And it is true that one can love one aspect of the song (in this case, the haunting melody in D minor) and despise another (the hopeless tone of the lyrics).

I guess it’s very easy to become apathetic and/or pessimistic in this day we live in. One only has to check the news to get one’s daily dose of depressing news. Take the case of 25 year old Kae Davantes, a tragic victim of random crime. Abducted at the gate of her own home inside a gated subdivision only a few minutes away from our own. Mercilessly killed because she saw the faces of the five unemployed youth who were out to make a few bucks… P3,000 is the worth of her life, it would seem.

And it seems the horror and madness of the world spares no one. The eight-year-old Yemeni child bride who died from internal bleeding on her wedding night. The five-year-old Pakistani girl who was raped and killed. And just last night, a five-year-old Filipina girl who was raped (apparently by a relative) in one of Zamboanga’s evacuation centers.

Yes, oh yes, it IS a mad world.

It’s really not difficult to understand why some parents, religious groups and educational institutions expressly forbid their children any exposure to media, whether it be through television, radio or the Internet. The news is just so terrible, the risk so great. Philippine streets are no longer safe for our children, and trouble follows them home via social media.

And I can understand why my parents forbid me to go to certain places because of the peace and order situation. While at times I may feel penned in, they’re only doing their job as my parents: to protect me, for as long as they can, from this mad world.

It is so easy to fall into the trap of hopeless despair, or its brother: apathy. Oh yes, it’s a big bad world out there, so I’m just going to look out for my own selfish interests. I’m going to be an atheist, because how can there be a God who allows such horrible things to happen? (For the record, there’s a boy in my Grade 8 class now who claims he’s an atheist. It horrifies me to think that 13-year-olds nowadays can be so cynical. “Life is pointless… studying is pointless. What’s the point of everything? One person cannot do anything,” he keeps saying.)

It’s becoming more of a challenge in these cruel days to find God in the everyday routines of life. We have to search, to really LOOK for Him. But once we do, we find that He is in the small beauties of life.

He is in the smiles of the parents I meet in our school, when they come for Parent-Teacher conferences. I see His image reflected upon the matching visages of mothers, fathers and their children. He is in the piece of good news I just read: a World War II soldier’s letter finally reaches his daughter 70 years after it was written, weeks after she was born and just before he died. He is everywhere, if we only care to look.

He can be found in poetry and books, in music and song (the right kind).  In Ancient Greek musical theory, the doctrine of ethos holds that music directly affects our characters, bodies, minds and souls. I believe there is a great truth in this, and not just with music. But with all of art and literature.

One of my 4^th year high school music students asked me this question after we had spent 2 hours of class time watching the movie Farinelli (about the greatest castrati of all time), and after listening to great Handel arias like Lascia ch’io pianga: “What’s the point? What’s the use?”

The Ancient Greeks knew why. They knew that exposure to what was good, true and beautiful molded young minds, held forth a standard of excellence, of virtue that may not be (and may no longer be) present in today’s callous world.

And so, goodbye to beautiful but dangerous music like Mad World. You may be a pretty tune, but you do nothing for my soul.

Time and time again, I keep going back to classics like Handel’s immortal Come Unto Him from the oratorio MESSIAH.

Come unto Him, all ye that labor

Come unto Him, ye that are heavy laden

And He will give you rest.

Take His yoke upon you and learn of Him

For He is meek and lowly of heart

And ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Classical music. It’s good for the soul. It draws me closer to God, and when I listen to arias such as this one, I FEEL the certainty of his love and I know everything will turn out alright.