Music Mondays: Rain and Rainbows

Patty Griffin and Kacey Musgraves on Why You're Going to be Okay

In the coming weeks, I will be returning to some deep cuts on underground rap groups and some extreme metal engaging issues from poverty to racial liberation, but I hope you will bear with me for one more slightly uncharacteristic set of choices - these two songs are by folk singers who are both thinking about the metaphor of rain and rainbows in our lives. Patty Griffin’s “Rain” and Kacey Musgraves’s “Rainbow.”

Patty Griffin and Kacey Musgraves

It is hard to dispute the striking relevance of these songs for the current situation in the Carolinas after Hurricane Helene, which will be a recovery effort that lasts months (maybe years) and not simply a few more days. Moreover, these tracks speak nicely to the situation in preparation for Milton coming on its way to Tampa Bay - where most of my family lives).

Before diving in, I also want to mention something in anticipation for the posts to come in the next few weeks and months. Whether or not I continue to mention the aftermath of Helene directly (which I may or may not do depending on the philosophical issue under consideration), it is important not to forget the longterm impacts that such tragedies have on the lives of those so deeply impacted. My university returns to classes tomorrow morning, but universities in Asheville are likely to be out for many more weeks.

My power came back on this week and we never lost water. Friends of mine have been without power for over a week and are being told that it might be several more weeks before water is again flowing and is safe to drink. Our culture has an unbelievably short attention span and so I implore you to remain in solidarity with those who do not have the option to “return to normal.” Support will be required for a very long time.

Find ways to encourage those impacted, but also find ways to interrupt the culture of hostility, division, and falsehoods that just make everything worse. Neighbor love is not something that cares about political loyalties. But, when our politicians sow discord rather than inviting such love, they are not only out of step with our lived experience that demands solidarity in the face of the vulnerable human condition, but also they are actively undermining the hope for social flourishing that should motivate our political actions in the first place.

So, let’s walk together a bit today and talk along the way about storms in our life and what it means to weep with each other about what is lost in the floods, but also what it means to help each other come out from underneath the umbrella once the storm has passed.