Living Where The Streets Have No Name

No the title of today's blog is not an attempt of a humorous poke at the rural area of North Carolina where I am currently residing. If any of my fellow U2 fans are reading this, you may have noticed the famous song title included with in the title.

"Where The Streets Have No Name" is one of most famous U2 songs, one of their many hits and the first songs of what many critics and fans call their best albums, The Joshua Tree. I have a hard time picking out a favorite album much less a favorite song, but this last Sunday I had an intellectual, philosophical and perhaps even spiritual revelation thanks to the always great U2.

While driving to Chapel Hill for my day off I was again surrounded by gorgeous deep green trees on all sides and above me was a clear blue sky. Every so often their was a pond or some small watering hole and all I couldn't stop thinking that while I doubt I could make North Carolina my home, another visit to these beautiful landscape would not be protested.

Surrounded by this beauty the car was filled with its own beauty, the man-made art of music. About a year ago my brother gave me a CD called Strung Out on U2, a CD I highly recommend. As you can tell from the introduction, I love U2 and think very highly of both the members and the music. Strung Out on U2 is an a CD of two different string quartets performing a large handful of U2's hits.

Although I do not consider myself a classical music fan, through exposure by my mom during my childhood and my experience in the Plano I.S.D. humanities program, I can say that I appreciate and enjoy some classical music even if overall I prefer to listen to something else. In the string compositions of these songs, everything in a U2 song was performed by string instruments. Even the vocals were replaced by a violin.

With my love of U2 I eagerly embraced this collection of string music and have fallen completely in love with this version of my favorite songs. The many times I have listened to the originals and my knowledge of their lyrics probably helps, but the string versions really help me to travel to that world of ideas and lose myself in the meaning of the songs.

Back to my drive on Sunday. So as I was driving through this natural beauty the song "Where The Streets Have No Name" in the its string quartet form was being played loudly enough to fill the car and take my attention hostage. From something my brother once told me and my own interpretation of the lyrics, "Where The Streets Have No Name" is at the same time about places so poor and isolated that their streets have no name, but also for the hope for a world free of divisions such as those that lead to war, a world with no name streets.

Let's just look at one stanza:

I wanna feel sunlight on my face
I see the dust cloud disappear without a trace
I wanna take shelter from the poison rain
Where the streets have no name.

Here we have a very positive image of sunlight which is almost universally identified as positive in artwork. Then the hopeful image of a dust cloud disappearing. In my opinion a dust cloud seems to be an image that brings about feelings like uncomfortable and inconvenience. So a dust cloud disappearing without a trace is hopeful within itself, but also enables the sunlight to seen and felt.

So far the lyrics refer to a positive image and a negative image disappearing and becoming positive. Then Bono writes/sings "I wanna take shelter from the poison rain." While the idea of shelter is positive, poison rain at its face value can represent a world messed up by pollution or more symbolically war, famine, illness and the many other reasons for sadness in the world.

So we start off with hope, a negative image quickly turning into hope and then the search for hope in the midst of despair. I decided to reproduce the lyrics, but to make it easier for those who just want me to get to the point I will wait until the end of the entry.

Back to my story... as I was listening to the string version of this song and driving through nature, I couldn't help but close my eyes for a brief second. I would've enjoyed to absorb all this longer, but it is hard to enjoy the beauty of the lush green around me with my eyes closed and more importantly it is much harder to drive!

What finally came to me during this drive was the answer to questions I have been asked and have asked myself repeatedly in the last few years. Why do I put such a premium on a social consciousness? Why am I so dedicated to living a social justice lifestyle? Why am I so passionate on pursuing a career focused on social justice?

Thanks to the influence of my brother and his music collection, the first real song I really embraced was "Mysterious Ways" on the Achtung Baby album of U2. I used to play it over and over whenever he was not home. It was fun, got me going and had a quality to it that made me think about things more deeply than I ever had. I think I was 8 or 9.

The first album/cd I ever bought or really had someone in my family buy for me was U2's Pop (which many fans and critics think is the weakest of all U2 albums. They have a point, but still fantastic music with some incredible melodies and lyrics).

What occurred to me was that I had been growing up with social justice in my ears, brain and my heart since that first day I started to listen to "Mysterious Ways" over and over.

Of course I still factor in my parents' insistence on watching the news and some excellent guidance of teachers, I think I have finally figured out the answer to those questions.

We are the the products of our childhood and the latter part of the childhood was filled with beautiful music that seduced me into thinking about the world around me.

Sound like a good explanation or am I just trying to hard to be artsy about my life?