Out here in the fields[1]A line I would sometime sing to myself when I was a missionary myself; the song predates my existence upon this earth by over a decade, but enjoyed a popular resurgence in the late-90s/early-2000s, … Continue reading
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living.[2]There was, incidentally, no time in my life when I felt more alive than when I was serving others, on my mission.
I don’t need to fight
To prove I’m right[3]Bruce R. McConkie purportedly once said, “Elders, don’t Bible bash. And if you do Bible bash, win.” But of course, that line only proves that the famously austere McConkie had a … Continue reading
I don’t need to be forgiven.[4]My parents didn’t like this line, because it seemed to deny the necessity of repentance. But the way I read it was: I don’t need to be forgiven by the world, or by my family, or parents, … Continue reading
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Don’t cry
Don’t raise your eye
It’s only teenage wasteland[5]Like so many missionaries, I exited my teen years on my mission–which means I was out tracting the night I realized I would never be a teenager again. And though the pain of growing-up was … Continue reading
Sally, take my hand
We’ll travel south cross land[6]Here the song expresses a yearning for Zion–for a place to flee Babylon from.
Put out the fire
And don’t look past my shoulder.[7]Like Lot’s wife, we are not to look back as we flee the vanities of the world.
The exodus is here[8]The most explicitly religious language of the song; remember, the gospel is supposed to be a liberation.
The happy ones are near[9]Approaching Zion and the City of Enoch.
Let’s get together
Before we get much older.[10]Isn’t that the dating advice we keep getting anyways?
Teenage wasteland
It’s only teenage wasteland.
Teenage wasteland
Oh, yeah
Its only teenage wasteland
They’re all wasted![11]Which is really just another way of saying we are ready to be redeemed. Joseph Smith taught that the reason Christ leaves behind the 99 to seek after the 1 is because the 99 are “too righteous … Continue reading
References
| ↑1 | A line I would sometime sing to myself when I was a missionary myself; the song predates my existence upon this earth by over a decade, but enjoyed a popular resurgence in the late-90s/early-2000s, due to its prominence in the trailers for “Prefontaine,’ “A Bug’s Life,” “American Beauty,” “Summer of Sam,” and the theme song to CSI:NY. Hence why that particular “Classic Rock” song always felt contemporary to me; besides, “All is as one day with God, and time only is measured unto men” (Alma 40:8). |
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| ↑2 | There was, incidentally, no time in my life when I felt more alive than when I was serving others, on my mission. |
| ↑3 | Bruce R. McConkie purportedly once said, “Elders, don’t Bible bash. And if you do Bible bash, win.” But of course, that line only proves that the famously austere McConkie had a sense of humor after all, that the important thing to focus upon here is that no one was ever converted to the gospel–or to anything else for that matter–based upon argumentation. Truth is not contentious, nor does it need to fight to prove its right: it is a feeling, that distills upon the soul without compulsory means, without money and without price. |
| ↑4 | My parents didn’t like this line, because it seemed to deny the necessity of repentance. But the way I read it was: I don’t need to be forgiven by the world, or by my family, or parents, or governments, or institutions, or employers, or what have you–not when I have the truth with me. This is how we learned to testify with both boldness and humility as missionaries (“Use boldness but not overbearance” -Alma 38:12). |
| ↑5 | Like so many missionaries, I exited my teen years on my mission–which means I was out tracting the night I realized I would never be a teenager again. And though the pain of growing-up was often exquisite–the bullying, the depression, the self-doubt, the raging hormones and both figurative and literal growing-pains–a “waste land” indeed–nevertheless I did feel cause to mourn its passing.
How apt we are to forget just how radical of changes occur within us during our teenage years! In that brief span from 11 to 19, we become completely different beings. Of course that decade doesn’t feel brief when we’re passing through it; perhaps that is how this life of ours will one day feel in the vast eternities. |
| ↑6 | Here the song expresses a yearning for Zion–for a place to flee Babylon from. |
| ↑7 | Like Lot’s wife, we are not to look back as we flee the vanities of the world. |
| ↑8 | The most explicitly religious language of the song; remember, the gospel is supposed to be a liberation. |
| ↑9 | Approaching Zion and the City of Enoch. |
| ↑10 | Isn’t that the dating advice we keep getting anyways? |
| ↑11 | Which is really just another way of saying we are ready to be redeemed. Joseph Smith taught that the reason Christ leaves behind the 99 to seek after the 1 is because the 99 are “too righteous to be redeemed; they are damned anyways, you cannot save them.” It is only when we see our wretched situation–to see ourselves as “wasted!”–that we are fit to be saved. |