What the Hell is Heaven...?

I have written about this dark secret before, but it keeps sucking back in...

It's one of the reasons, I am most excited about having cable back...

I am obsessed with "Grey's Anatomy". (Thought I was going somewhere darker with it did you not? That's called good writing...)

More than many girls I knew back in college. More than my wife.

One time when I got intoxicated over the summer at a neighbor's party, I came home and collapsed in bed next to my wife. She told me the next morning I was weeping about a character that died at the end of Season 5 named George O'Malley. When a show is in your subconscious and can be brought out by the psychological services provided by being heavily imbibed -- you are OBSESSED.

I love the shows and the storylines, but the thing I get most excited about, is what AWESOME song is gonna be playing in the background this week or next week.

The title of this blogpost is a lyric from a song called "Heaven" by Brett Dennen. He's some hippy in San Francisco who belongs to what sounds like a commune-ish society that teaches children about surviving in a diverse society and pursuing peace whilst doing so. That is right, hippies pursuing peace. Perfect. Look him up on Wikipedia if you want details.

Anyways, the song is a commentary on Western Society and Christianity with a couple really good haymakers "stick-stick-ing" capitalism and U.S. politics (two of the best fools to be "stick-stick-ing") and a light jab to the Christian notion of buying salvation.

And I have to admit, I was immediately drawn to the use of "what the hell" followed so closely by "heaven"...

The power of this song is not in a simple writing gimmick, but in the emotional reverberations of the chorus:

"OH, Heaven, Heeeeaaaaaaaavvvvennnnnnnn,

What the hell is Heaven?

Is there a home for the homeless?

Is there a hope for the hopeless?"

I like that the song ends with the chorus and repeating to the listener the important questions of, "Is there a home for the homeless? Is there a hope for the hopeless?"

You get a sense of pain in Dennen's voice in the asking of these three questions. He spends his verses tearing down what the metaphysical location is not, but he implies that it most definitely needs to be a place of reprieve for those whose burdens have been too heavy here on earth.
 
Another way of taking in his chorus that should be painstaking for the modern Christian (including myself) is with a sense of cynicism and sarcasm and a dash of anger for extra spice (just in case cynicism and sarcasm are not enough to make your butt cheeks pucker with unease). That he is saying to a Christian,
 
"Look quit describing this beautiful place far beyond the clouds. I could give a rats ass about "stored up treasures", a mansion or "streets of gold". What IS Heaven? You toss it around like it is a prize for being good. What the fuck is Heaven? (IF I were Dennen, I'd thrown that in every once in a while during my live show on the final chorus.) Are the people that have had to suffer throughout their entire miserable lives going to have a place of relief to go to? Is it a home for those who have had to lie parched in the sun on a park bench and shiver under wet and damp bridges? Will it bring hope to those who are born with debilitating diseases/disorders; To those who cannot play in the fields across the path from their homes because they are laced with mines left from long gone wars; hope for those who have to share one bowl of rice week after week while you gorge yourself on steaks and salads every day? Because I think that is all anybody really needs when they take their last breath. All the weary really want is a little hope. To hell with your "streets of gold". Are you understanding me?"
 
Or maybe that is just the conversation it invokes in me upon listening.
 
I like thinking of Heaven in that simpler way. That when I "shuffle off this mortal coil", I can take a breather. The Heaven we learn about in church makes me think I will need a dayplanner. I am just saying.
 
(I wonder if God's doing his best Rodney Dangerfield, "Geez, everytime this Droge writes a blog post I get no respect. No respect I tell ya.")