Rock and Roll Parables: Queen

Initially Published at Modern Mormon Men on June 3, 2014

*****

In 1984 Queen released I Want To Break Free along with a music video that was initially banned by MTV (… look how far MTV has evolved since then!). Though the MTV ban undoubtedly limited the popularity of this song in the US, it was a huge international hit. Thirty years later, it stands the test of time of being one of the band’s greatest hits. It therefore seems like a good choice for launching the ongoing Rock & Roll Parables series at Modern Mormon Men.

I Want To Break Free
(Lyrics by John Deacon)

I want to break free
I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You're so self satisfied I don't need you
I've got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free.


I've fallen in love
I've fallen in love for the first time
And this time I know it's for real
I've fallen in love, yeah
God knows, God knows I've fallen in love.

It's strange but it's true
I can't get over the way you love me like you do
But I have to be sure
When I walk out that door
Oh how I want to be free, baby
Oh how I want to be free,
Oh how I want to break free.

But life still goes on
I can't get used to, living without, living without,
Living without you by my side
I don't want to live alone, hey
God knows, got to make it on my own
So baby can't you see
I've got to break free.

I've got to break free
I want to break free, yeah
I want, I want, I want, I want to break free.

Sometimes a song is just a song.  Then again, sometimes it is a statement about something bigger.  It is pretty clear that the music video that accompanied I Want To Break Free was not making some grand statement.  It was a spoof on an English soap opera (Coronation Street) that was conceived by Roger Taylor, the band drummer.  Of the music video he said:

We had done some really serious, epic videos in the past, and we just thought we’d have some fun. We wanted people to know that we didn’t take ourselves too seriously, that we could still laugh at ourselves. I think we proved that.

The meaning behind the lyrics is much more mysterious, and speculation about what the song is really saying has been rampant for decades. The song was written by the band’s reclusive bassist, John Deacon. Deacon withdrew from the limelight after Freddie Mercury’s death. Rumor has it that he said the inspiration behind these lyrics ‘came from frustration’. He has never expounded further.

It is interesting to read various people’s interpretation of the lyrics. These theories range from this being a song about a bad relationship, the women’s movement, and the LGBT community which Freddie championed (John Deacon was then married; he and his wife are still together and have six kids). I think themes of addiction or mental illness could easily be added to this list.  We may never really know what frustrations spawned the lyrics. Undoubtedly they speak to people based on their individual circumstances.

When I listened to this in the car the other day, I was struck by thinking of this song as if it were a parable. The protagonist feels trapped and enslaved.  Though he is in some kind of a relationship, he knows it isn’t real love. Someone has opened his eyes and given him a taste of how it feels to be truly loved. But insecurity and separation anxiety mysteriously draw him back to the dark place from which he longs to escape. In the end, we are left wondering if he ever truly breaks free.

An argument could be made that this is a pretty good fit for the enslaving power of sin.  Satan convincingly makes grand promises which we eventually recognize to be lies--but only after we are trapped. The Savior and His atonement help us to realize that we don’t need Satan; that freedom is a real possibility.  To know Christ is truly to fall in love for the first time--once and for all. To feel His love in return is liberating. Yet for some unknown reason, we still feel drawn back to our old master and the old ways. To long for something is one thing, to truly do what it takes to realize that desire is another.

Most of us have felt the joy of God’s redeeming love in the past (see Alma 5:26). But like the guy in the song says: “life still goes on.” The great challenge is to retain that change of heart and fight off  the desire to return to our old master and his enslaving ways.

What is your take on this song? Share your own Rock & Roll Parables* as a guest post to make this an ongoing series at Modern Mormon Men.

*****

* The Bible Dictionary says: "In parables divine truth is presented by comparison with material things." We're going with this definition of parable, so let this be your guide in your submissions. Anything is fair game except Harry Chapin’s The Cat’s In the Cradle (we have enough to feel guilty about already).

Atavism and the Lithuanian Holocaust

1941 Nazi propaganda poster in Lithuanian language.
Top: "A Jew is your eternal enemy."
Bottom: "Stalin and Jews -- one big gang of scoundrels!"

I'm excited about our trip to Lithuania this Spring and having been trying to come up with a bucket list for our time in Vilnius. In doing so I read this book: The Hill, by Antanas Jonynas. It is the story of the murder of Dr. Schmidt and his family by his patients and neighbors during the Lithuanian Holocaust. Though he was the only physician in Kraziai and had served the people well, he was a Jew. That was enough.

In June of 1940, the Soviets occupied Lithuania and initiated a redistribution program that seized the land of local farmers, and exiled 36,000 Lithuanians to Siberia and Soviet Central Asia. When the Germans displaced the Soviets in June of 1941 they disbanded the unpopular Soviet programs and won a measure of support from the locals. In place of Soviet programs was a pogrom of ethnic cleansing of Jews in Lithuania.  During the 3 year Nazi occupation 200,000 Jews were murdered with the complicity of the Lithuanians themselves.  This represented 94% of Lithuanian Jews, the highest percentage of any Nazi-occupied country in Europe. When the Red Army returned in 1944, the details of the suffering and injustices heaped upon the Jews were veiled and minimized behind the iron curtain and the Soviet oppression resumed in earnest.*

Antanas Jonynas makes no excuses for the good Christians of Lithuania and the role they played in the murder of their neighbors.  But he did describe the ease with which the nation slipped into complacency and complicity in one of the greatest horrors of the modern era.

Some dark forces were so terribly strong that, once awakened, they created waves that were nearly impossible to resist. If only all people would rise together and say no to violence then everything would stop--the live and burning hearts would restrain and subdue the bloody force all at once. Yet for some reason, the hearts fearfully crouched down and shrank, and people got swept into that wave. A paralysis of conscience, and attack of fear took hold of people and they were unable to resist any longer--and they fell, downed by the wave, or helplessly allowed themselves to be swept away by it. 

This wave of dark violence must have had something devilishly tempting, poisonously attractive, that lured many people and befuddled their minds. What was it? An atavism of the human animal, the revenge of the animal instincts against the centuries-long self-liberation of humanity from their terrible rule? Was it avarice? Was it an orgy of passions that yearned for the most bestial satisfaction and self-defilement?

The Lithuanian Holocaust is hauntingly familiar to the horrible violence that destroyed Nephite civilization at the end of the Book of Mormon. Mormon looked on helplessly as his people were similarly swept away 1500 years earlier:

And it is impossible for the tongue to describe, or for man to write a perfect description of the horrible scene of carnage which was among the people, both of the Nephites and of the Lamanites; and every heart was hardened, so that they delighted in the shedding of blood continually (Mormon 4:11).

It can be very discouraging to look around today and realize that these dark forces still remain strong. The poisons are more attractive than ever. Just as in times past, these forces use the alluring dark arts of fear, intimidation, violence and greed to paralyze conscience. Today people are still being swept away by violence, but also by other atavistic traits of the natural man: lust, idolatry and pride.  King Benjamin's beautiful description of how to halt the degeneration towards godlessness gives me great hope:

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father (Mosiah 3:19).

Mormon went on to describe how King Benjamin's people succeeded in putting off the natural man and "had no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually (Mosiah 5:2). Though Mormon's people refused the Balm of Gilead that would heal their wounds, Mormon himself remained optimistic. This unfailing confidence that good will triumph over evil has been fundamental to the message of every prophet that has spoken since. Several years ago when President Hinckley was asked by a Protestant minister about how he felt about things he said:

I feel optimistic--guardedly so, yes, because of the extent of evil in the world. But, on the basis of what I see, goodness is gaining, and the work of the Lord is growing in strength and power.

I hear this optimism burst forth in every General Conference and in every Sacrament Meeting. As we incrementally beat back and subdue the natural man through the atonement, we come to feel this optimism in spite of the carnage all around. It's arguably the only way we can hope to attain peace in a terribly evil world.
_______

* see an the Preface of this book by it's translator, Yuval Lirov, for an excellent summary of the Lithuanian Holocaust 

Balm of Gilead

In the OT, balm of Gilead had a great reputation for it's medicinal properties.  Balm of Gilead is an ointment made from resin extracted from plants that were plentiful in Gilead, the area east of the Jordan river. It was used to heal wounds, and treat other medical ailments.

Ironically, the writings of Jeremiah demonstrate the impotence of the famed balm of Gilead to heal those that seemed in the most need (Jeremiah 8:22; Jeremiah 46:11).  Why?  Even the best medicines do not cure us of sin, and cannot offer the kind of healing that ultimately makes us live.  That healing can only come from Christ's atonement. Perhaps nothing teaches this point better than the following old Negro Spiritual.

 There Is A Balm In Gilead

There is a balm in Gilead

To make the wounded whole;

There is a balm in Gilead

To heal the sin-sick soul.
~

Some times I feel discouraged,

And think my work’s in vain,

But then the Holy Spirit

Revives my soul again.
~

There is a balm in Gilead

To make the wounded whole;

There is a balm in Gilead

To heal the sin-sick soul.
~

If you cannot sing like angels,

If you can’t preach like Paul,

You can tell the love of Jesus,

And say He died for all.
~

There is a balm in Gilead

To make the wounded whole;

There is a balm in Gilead

To heal the sin-sick soul.
~

The Ugly Duchess (Part 1)

An Old Woman (The Ugly Duchess), oil on wood; 
painted about 1513 - by Quinten Matsys (1465-1530)
Photo Credit: Big Reid's iPhone @ National Gallery, London

What inspired the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci? 

At the end of the 14th-century, Quentin Matsys (also spelled as Massys) was a little-known Flemish artist who went on to be the founder of the Antwerp School. While wandering through the National Gallery in London, I stumbled on to his 1513 painting: An Old Woman (The Ugly Duchess).  This was easily the most captivating portrait I encountered during my visit (maybe because endocrinologists find Paget's disease interesting, maybe because Matsys is so talented). At only 500 years old, it was in stark contrast to the flawless beauty depicted in the classical Greek sculptures of the British Museum, which I'd visited earlier that day.

Drawing of a Grotesque Woman; red chalk on paper
by Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)

Both Da Vinci and Matsys were very interested in ugliness. For years, art scholars assumed that The Ugly Duchess was based on one of  Da Vinci's Grotesque sketches. Da Vinci was renowned for his intensely private studies that included detailed sketches of this style. In reality, the evidence now suggests that it was Da Vinci who was inspired. The two artists were known to have exchanged sketches. In this case, it is difficult to dispute that Leonardo was deeply influenced by Matsys' work.

The Matsys painting is purported to be a portrait of Margaret Countess of Tyrol, who was also known as Margarete Maultasch (Margaret 'Satchel-Mouth'). However, the Countess died almost 100 years before Matsys was even born. She was an Austrian princess in the 14th century. Legends (which are of dubious reliability) describe her as a ruthlessly violent nymphomaniac; she also was purported to be the embodiment of ugliness. Maybe that is why her name has been attached to the Matsys portrait. Other reports describe her as beautiful and kind. It is obvious that the former reputation holds sway.

Scholars seem to agree that the sitter for Matsys' work had striking facial deformities from long-standing Pagets's disease of bone (more on this another time). We can't be certain about what message Matsys was trying to convey in this work.[i] Conceivably, it was an accurate portrait of a rich noble that depicts striking self-confidence in the face of a butt-ugly exterior. But for me, Matsys was making a much larger statement.  I see his work a mirror into which each observer has the opportunity to gaze and take a long hard look at themselves.

To look at the accoutrements of the Duchess, we see the trappings of one obsessed with youth and outer beauty.  She wears a heavily jeweled headdress of an aristocrat, but one that was then so outdated as to make it comical.  It's horned shape and associated veil are meant to highlight her face. Her jewelry and clothes are of the highest quality and craftsmanship and betray her affluence and social stature.  The low-cut neckline and corseting of her bodice show off her breasts and figure.  In her right hand she holds a single red rosebud, symbolic of her quest for a suitor.

But there is a problem . . . SHE IS NOT BEAUTIFUL. Her breasts are wrinkled and flabby.  Her lips are thickened; her face is coarse and wrinkled; her ears are abnormally large.  Her bulbous and upturned nose looks more like a snout. Her cranial deformities masculinize her features with bossing of her forehead and brows, and enlargement of her chin and jaw. The extension of her upper lip give her a grotesque ape-like appearance. Rather than the image of a beautiful young woman, we have the impression of a balding old man. In the words of Isaiah, this is 'burning instead of beauty.' Indeed, she is a bud that will 'likely never bloom'.

I must say I've never seen Paget's disease of this severity in my whole career,[ii]but I've seen my share of ugly Duchesses. It is manifest in many ways: infatuation with all things superficial, unbridled lust for perpetual youth, cosmetic surgery taken to extremes,[iii] obsession with fitness and body building, out-of-control wardrobes, infatuation with having the right labels on everything from grocery bags to pencils, and inability to simply grow up and put off childish things (I could go on but will cut the diatribe short). Let me concede that I appreciate beauty, quality, 'nice things' and a youthful spirit.[iv] But for me this unforgetable painting was a useful illustration of the trappings of the flesh. I saw in this 500 year old painting the here and now. The realization that we need to somehow get beyond this suddenly crashed in to my comfortable existence. 

If The Ugly Duchess portrait is a mirror, then most of us will find it reflecting back some inner ugliness of which we are not so proud.  We use the principle of distraction to focus outside attention to our more favorable attributes: style, clothing, wit, adornments--anything but the ugliness we're trying to hide. Like the Duchess, we spare no expense in trying to disguise and cover it. But, even heroic efforts to retain one's youth and physical beauty are doomed to fail. Our blemishes will not be hidden forever. Even a life spent in the pursuit of remaining one of the beautiful people is likewise a losing endeavor that will not keep us happy or bring more than transitory inner peace.

The point of all this (finally!), is that figuratively speaking we are all ugly because of sin, and no amount of primping or adornments will succeed in covering it.  The atonement of Jesus Christ and his gospel have the ability to make the ugly beautiful.  In fact, it is the only way it can be done. David was fond of the notion that true beauty comes as we worship the Lord in holiness (Psalms 29:2; 96:9). Nephi, Isaiah and Jeremiah all use beauty as a surrogate for righteousness.  I think Moroni may have said it best:

O then ye unbelieving, turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the Father in the name of Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless, pure, fair and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at that great and last day.

These are truly inspired words to remember the next time I start to 'get my Duchess on'.

---

[i] It has been suggested that Matsys may have been expounding on an essay of Erasmus from 1511 in which he satires women who "still play the coquette", "cannot tear themselves away form their mirrors", and "do not hesitate to exhibit their repulsive, withered breasts" [Grössinger, Christa (1997). Picturing women in late Medieval and Renaissance art. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 136.]

[ii] This degree of deformity is a relic of the past thanks to advances in medical treatment for Paget’s disease over the last 25 years.

[iii] I find great humor in the latest trend: silicone lip injections that create a look reminiscent of a carp's mouth. I'm increasingly amazed by the number of men using anabolic steroids solely for the look.  Thursday I saw my first 64-year old man with pectoral implants when he came in looking for hCG, human growth hormone and testosterone . . . no joke!

[iv] There is currently a big family dispute on whether I'm on my 3rd or 4th midlife crisis . . .