Lent- Day 3: A chasing after the wind.
Last week, as Kanye West’s post-Grammy rant went viral, my brother Joe sent me a simple text:
We can only wish that Kanye would stop with what’s becoming standard for Kim K’s other half: straight cray comments almost every time a mic or camera is in his presence. Marie Claire has compiled a list of 21 baffling Kanye quotes, or you can just head over to Tumblr for an ever expanding collection.
Back to Marie Claire, let me grab a few doozies:
“I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice.”
Agreed on that last part…
I think what Kanye West is going to mean is something similar to what Steve Jobs means. I am undoubtedly, you know, Steve of internet, downtown, fashion, culture. Period. By a long jump…”
Gotta love that referring to yourself in the third person and that after saying “Period” he just kept right on going. Maybe he meant “comma”.
I am so credible and so influential and so relevant that I will change things.’
Self-aggrandizement by a narcissist? Probably. But it also speaks to a yearning that most people have, a desire for a legacy. Once it sinks in that yes, we all are going to croak eventually, many people want to leave behind something by which to be remembered.
In the opening chapters of Ecclesiastes, the writer (known as the “Teacher” and a “son of David”, thought by many to be Solomon) struggles with just how fleeting life is, and goes about doing things to get more happy than Pharrell.
He builds gardens and parks, stockpiled bling, hired the best singers (sorry, rap was not a thing yet), and got an actual harem (the original groupies?). He “denied” himself “nothing. Yet, he states in chapter two:
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
In that Marie Claire post, Kanye is quoted- repeatedly- saying he is a non-reader. It’s a shame because I think there’s a lot in Ecclesiastes he may find beneficial (and “Bound 2” has got nothing on the Song of Solomon, uh-huh, Honey).
Reflection for the day: What am I doing that will truly last? (I John 2:17)