Musings on Conor and life....
I came across this today-- Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst:
M: What's your religious background?
CO: I was brought up Catholic. I even went to a Jesuit, all-boys prep school, but my parents were always extremely liberal. As soon as I could make an argument for not going to church that went beyond "I wanna sleep in," they accepted that.
M: You haven't shied away from addressing conflicted feelings about religion in your music. Where do you stand now?
CO: These ideas of God and afterlife and sin seem very abstract, but they're part of how I grew up, so inevitably they affect the way I think. I went through a period of intense atheism, but now I find myself going back and forth between feeling like there are things at work besides biology, and feeling like it's complete nonsense. I know that if you put forth positive energy, it often returns to you. I suppose that's some form of spirituality, however vague it is. It's also hard to explain why things like love and music exist, things that seem contradictory to your bodily needs, like eating. When you fall in love, you don't wanna eat - why is that? Shouldn't you always wanna eat if you're just a little mammal?
excerpted from an interview posted on http://www.montrealmirror.com/2005/011305/cover_music.html
It's always fascinated me how people come to their beliefs. Aside from close friends and relatives in my own life who have either converted to Christianity or found some reason to stray from it, I'm interested in the whys of it all. In addition to recent LJ posts, it's been a subject that's been continually in my head for a year (like, haunting me), and I'm still no closer to finding what it is I'm looking for in terms of answers. Well, there is no one answer as to why people have faith or don't, and every person has a unique story. I know what I believe, but I always find myself trying to delve into others' minds, to see the spiritual realm as they do and to see what influenced their current thoughts on religion.
I guess that's why I've always kept the Ani DiFranco and Conor Oberst records of my life so close to me--it's like experiencing a life I've never known--a life without the certainty of a legislated religion with its God, where human love and compassion are the loftiest things one can aspire to--where the pain of living is outshined by simple joys, which are these deeply moving things like music and art and giving and nature or even a night out with friends. That's frightening to me and beautiful, too, in this weird way I can't describe except that I could've been anybody, and maybe I'd have never found God if I'd have been born in another place or time, except maybe I would have anyway because He'd have found me no matter what.
After I bought Bright Eyes' -Digital Ashes for a Digital Urn-, I stopped playing it for a while because it depressed me. (Okay, like no big surprise.) But then there are times when I listen to it and I remember that life is fleeting (in a good way), and people are hurting because they're real and humanity is altogether tender and vulnerable, and the ephemeral joys really are good--perhaps all the more because love doesn't last and people die.
I think church people can get so worked up over the future and heaven and getting all their blessings lined up in a row that they forget that this imperfect earthly life is indeed a precious gift, too, despite a troubled country and pain and sin and everything else. It would seem that that's a given, but I don't know--I don't always see that in people. I know I'm looking toward experiencing the loveliness of just being in the moment this year, coupled with a heart for all things everlasting, too. I think I love people more now than I used to-- because I've had to reach out for even the most casual human interaction.
Just some random thoughts.
Oh yeah-- I impulsively bought tickets for the Bright Eyes concert at the SB Bowl in October. Some boy in the English program is going to be very lucky! I can't believe I just said that.
M: What's your religious background?
CO: I was brought up Catholic. I even went to a Jesuit, all-boys prep school, but my parents were always extremely liberal. As soon as I could make an argument for not going to church that went beyond "I wanna sleep in," they accepted that.
M: You haven't shied away from addressing conflicted feelings about religion in your music. Where do you stand now?
CO: These ideas of God and afterlife and sin seem very abstract, but they're part of how I grew up, so inevitably they affect the way I think. I went through a period of intense atheism, but now I find myself going back and forth between feeling like there are things at work besides biology, and feeling like it's complete nonsense. I know that if you put forth positive energy, it often returns to you. I suppose that's some form of spirituality, however vague it is. It's also hard to explain why things like love and music exist, things that seem contradictory to your bodily needs, like eating. When you fall in love, you don't wanna eat - why is that? Shouldn't you always wanna eat if you're just a little mammal?
excerpted from an interview posted on http://www.montrealmirror.com/2005/011305/cover_music.html
It's always fascinated me how people come to their beliefs. Aside from close friends and relatives in my own life who have either converted to Christianity or found some reason to stray from it, I'm interested in the whys of it all. In addition to recent LJ posts, it's been a subject that's been continually in my head for a year (like, haunting me), and I'm still no closer to finding what it is I'm looking for in terms of answers. Well, there is no one answer as to why people have faith or don't, and every person has a unique story. I know what I believe, but I always find myself trying to delve into others' minds, to see the spiritual realm as they do and to see what influenced their current thoughts on religion.
I guess that's why I've always kept the Ani DiFranco and Conor Oberst records of my life so close to me--it's like experiencing a life I've never known--a life without the certainty of a legislated religion with its God, where human love and compassion are the loftiest things one can aspire to--where the pain of living is outshined by simple joys, which are these deeply moving things like music and art and giving and nature or even a night out with friends. That's frightening to me and beautiful, too, in this weird way I can't describe except that I could've been anybody, and maybe I'd have never found God if I'd have been born in another place or time, except maybe I would have anyway because He'd have found me no matter what.
After I bought Bright Eyes' -Digital Ashes for a Digital Urn-, I stopped playing it for a while because it depressed me. (Okay, like no big surprise.) But then there are times when I listen to it and I remember that life is fleeting (in a good way), and people are hurting because they're real and humanity is altogether tender and vulnerable, and the ephemeral joys really are good--perhaps all the more because love doesn't last and people die.
I think church people can get so worked up over the future and heaven and getting all their blessings lined up in a row that they forget that this imperfect earthly life is indeed a precious gift, too, despite a troubled country and pain and sin and everything else. It would seem that that's a given, but I don't know--I don't always see that in people. I know I'm looking toward experiencing the loveliness of just being in the moment this year, coupled with a heart for all things everlasting, too. I think I love people more now than I used to-- because I've had to reach out for even the most casual human interaction.
Just some random thoughts.
Oh yeah-- I impulsively bought tickets for the Bright Eyes concert at the SB Bowl in October. Some boy in the English program is going to be very lucky! I can't believe I just said that.