Don't close your eyes, they may not open. What if they open? WOuld you be alive?

Today was a hard day to pick a song...I had a great start to my morning and then things went progressively downhill until I went to watch the Chile v. Spain game with one of my close friends (who also happens to be fanatical about soccer, like me -- we've already made plans we WILL go to the next World Cup. In Brazil.) And then all the things that I'd gotten so riled up over (as in thinking my cat who lives with my parents, Plato Puss, had parasites) turned out to be nothing and I was back to happy...but a different sort of happy.

I also fell in love with a striped little baby kitten fluffball with the bluest eyes!! Not that I need a kitten right now... but this one was QUITE adorable!!!

I think depending on when you heard from me today, you would have gotten completely different versions of me. The funny part is all the wound up stressy moments were really nothing and my overall memory of the day is of how blue the sky and how bright the sun and how good it is to be alive inside.

And that's actually how I ended up choosing Maren Ord's Perfect. This song is one she wrote in high school when she found out a friend was suicidal to try to remind her how much life there is, even in this imperfect world. For me, I didn't pick this song for anything remotely close to suicidal -- I chose it more for the expression of hope in the song, the idea to keep pushing forward and to keep your eyes open to life because there's so much in it if you'd only see what's right in front of your face.

Maren is a Canadian born Mormon singer-songwriter, eighth of ten children. The song Perfect is off her first album, 2001's Waiting which is my personal favorite of her albums. After she got married she got a bit preachy evangelical in her music. Personally, I wasn't a fan of this. Now, I understand that for many people faith is a big part of a person's life and that songwriting is really an expression of something in the soul that needs out to share with the world. That said, I have yet to hear a song about a person's relationship with Christ that has any originality and doesn't sound the same as all the others. I'm sure, for those who like listening to worship music, it was a great album.

For me, what I liked about her songs was the optimism in them, and the idea of seeing the light and beauty in the world in spite of (and along side of) all the ugliness. This is a truth that resonates deeply with me. But when you try and connect this image, this message, to a religious tone, it doesn't become "see the beauty and light in the world" but rather becomes "see the hand of Jesus in the world and turn to him in thanks." There is a fundamental difference in this message, and it makes for stale songwriting when you're expressing someone else's platitudes rather than your own inner fire.

Even if you don't find a difference in these messages, something about the music on Pretty Things just seems stale and worn out in comparison to her earlier songs, as if all the vibrant sparkle of it had gone out. For me, this is a tragedy, whenever I see a person's fire go out -- even if I only see it from a distance secondhand. In interviews she claimed she had a hard time writing songs after she found happiness in her faith, her family, her husband and her children. The fact the songs are forced so she doesn't connect to them is evident in songs like American Loser which lacks passion and conviction. Ostensibly, she's singing about how no matter how big your pity fest, somebody has it worse off than you. That may have been her inspiration writing it, but it doesn't come through in the song or the performance on the album.

She's currently busy with her married life and raising two children in Alberta Canada and hasn't released any music since her Christmas songs EP.

Apparently, at twenty-five with two kids, she ran out of things to say to the world and has had nothing to say since then. But, at least she's happy in her life.

And songs like Beautiful and Perfect are still incredible. This is especially true on a day where you began it in love with the beauty you see in the world and then let the inconsequential dramas of this world make you lose that for a time. But only for a time. You can never lose sight of the things you love for more than a short time -- eventually you'll remember.



"Don't close your eyes
They may not open,
What if they open?
Would you be alive?

Everyone falls,
But not everyone rises.
Why don't you get up,
And rise again for me?

What if the world were
A little more perfect?
Would you stop crying or
Would you take the leap?
What if the world
Were a little more perfect?
Would you open your eyes
And blink again for me?

What about friendship?
What about friends?
You said the whole world
Was against you,
And it all had to end.

What about love?
What about family?
What about all that
You have to live for?

What if the world were
A little more perfect?
Would you stop crying or
Would you take the leap?
What if the world
Were a little more perfect?
Would you open your eyes
And blink again for me?

It isn't easy here without you
Why did you leave me?
What am I supposed to do?
(without you)

What if the world were
A little more perfect?
Would you stop crying or
Would you take the leap?
What if the world
Were a little more perfect?
Would you open your eyes
And blink again for me?"