Though I was still a tenderfoot, I had a distinct sense that there was a real difference between right and wrong, and I already had little patience for the moral relativism that is so prevalent in our day and age. I was hoping my new musical hero wasn't encouraging the idea that "it's all okay".
No, I wasn't inclined to say that the abuse I received was "natural", or that hatred was "natural", or that adultery was "natural".
How odd, then, and how beautiful, and how fitting, that my constant attempts at making sense of the tune did me a great service. Consider the various ways a certain term might be employed, and that opens up a whole new set of options for interpretation.
Look to the context: "natural" may mean it is right , but it might also mean it is something of use to me to become someone better. The distinction is subtle but critical.
In other words, everything happens for a good reason, and it's up to me to transform it into a blessing. Providence has made it as it is, and the way of things, however unpleasant, serves a deeper purpose.
I benefited from going to a high school where I was encouraged to think for myself, and I also benefited from going to a high school full of privileged, spoiled, and self-absorbed brats, most of whom treated me like garbage.
While I don't imagine it was the intention of our school elders to exclude me, the fact that they nevertheless did so was a sort of grace in disguise. What they did, however heinous, was an opportunity for me to lift myself out of my own self-pity and dread.
"Blame God?" I have found that as soon as I blame Him, I see how foolish and ridiculous I am! It is not God's fault for making the world; it is my fault for failing to heed His message.
When I listen to "Natural" in that way, it now makes sense.
I wish Mr. Jones had elaborated on why he now distances himself from this song, as he says in the link below. Maybe it's for the same reasons I once had trouble with, or maybe it's for completely different reasons.
And it is "natural", in the broad sense of the word, for it to be that way.
—4/2007
A few words of commentary from Howard Jones:
And the song itself:
Howard Jones, "Natural" from Human's Lib (1984)
Everything around is natural don't fight it
Don't disagree with this and that, no Astrology, Evolution, this-and-that-ity
This religion and that, no
And if they were not meant to be
Well don't you think they wouldn't be
And if they were not meant to be
Well don't you think they wouldn't be, oh
Your beliefs, philosophy, don't give us peace
Destruction of our enemy does it make us right
And if you took them apart and destroyed them all now one by one
This still won't make it work, no
Everything we like and don't like is whole and natural
I know it doesn't feel like it and the world seems wrong
But if we don't like it now then who can we blame
Blame God, be still, find harmony
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