The other day I talked about the joys and challenges of the new Lego Era in our household, an exampled of unexpected blessings. Last night we had even more!
Whenever we drive somewhere the kids like to listen to the radio. "Dad, can you turn on the music?" is a common refrain in our car. I always tune to the oldies station because, you know, it's safe for 5 and 3-year-old ears. Well...mostly.
Derek and Ali don't always agree on their favorite songs, but lately they found one they both dearly love. Much to daddy's amusement (or chagrin) it's "Spill the Wine", a 1970 hit by Eric Burdon and War. You may recall that it has a catchy Latin-Funk beat and a nice bass line over which Burdon describes a weird dream in which he's whisked away to a strange land with all kinds of girls surrounding him. It's somewhat questionable subject matter for kids, I suppose, but what do they know?
Except...
The chorus of this song is quite catchy. It consists of only two lines--"Spill the wine, take that pearl"--repeated over and over again. Neither of the kids has any idea what a pearl is. To them it sounds like "girl". So now I'm treated to my five-year-old singing "Spill the wine!" at the top of his lungs, to which his three-year-old little sister responds, "Take that girl!" They do this quite well, perfectly synchronized to the song and in tune. The only hitch is when Ali sometimes changes it to, "Take that boy!"
So tell me, what's a well-meaning father to do? Should I be overjoyed that my children are getting along, expressing themselves musically, and enjoying themselves? Or should I be concerned that they've bonded over alcohol and somewhat-inappropriate relationship impulses?
Life is funny like that. With every good thing comes something questionable. With almost everything questionable comes some sort of good...if only in someone seeking good through admittedly wrong ways. Sometimes we're able to filter out the bad. Sometimes we have to call a halt to the proceedings, admitting that the bad in a situation is too significant to continue and needs to be addressed. But most of the time our faith discipline calls us to take things in the best way, uplifting the good and refusing to give weight to (maybe even forgiving) the bad.
"Spill the wine, take that girl!" makes the dad in me cringe. It also makes the dad in me giggle. My life and the life of my family will be better if I give in to the giggle and let the cringe slide by. If Derek and Ali are drinking heavily and kidnapping folks for nefarious purposes when they get older, I guess I was wrong. Darn you, Eric Burdon! But likely they'll just develop of love of music and maybe learn that singing together is way more fun than singing alone even if nobody really knows the words in the first place.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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