Dust, Wind, Stress, and Getting a Grip

The lyrics aren't straight out of the Bible:

"...All my dreams, pass before my eyes, a curiosity
Dust in the wind, all they are is dust in the wind...

"...Don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away, all your money won't another minute buy..."
"Dust in the Wind" (1977)
Kansas, via www.sing365.com

On the other hand, "Dust in the Wind" makes a point that's in Ecclesiastes and Psalms:

"For the lot of man and of beast is one lot; the one dies as well as the other. Both have the same life-breath, and man has no advantage over the beast; but all is vanity.

"Both go to the same place; both were made from the dust, and to the dust they both return."
(Ecclesiastes 3:19-20)

---

"Before the mountains were born, the earth and the world brought forth, from eternity to eternity you are God.

"² A thousand years in your eyes are merely a yesterday,

"³ But humans you return to dust, saying, 'Return, you mortals!'

"Before a watch passes in the night,

"⁴ you have brought them to their end; They disappear like sleep at dawn; they are like grass that dies."
(Psalms 90:2-5)

We're not just doomed to live and die like other animals, a point that's made elsewhere in Ecclesiastes and the Psalms.

The Kansas song isn't a good discussion of eschatological aspirations written on the human soul. On the other hand, it was a welcome change of pace from much of 1977's popular music. I've harangued about dust, rock, and common sense before. (August 26, 2012)


(Oakland Blog, via SFGate, used w/o permission)

I've occasionally been pleasantly surprised at how many Americans both think clearly and take Christianity seriously, despite:

• Radio preachers fuming over music they do not
  • Like
  • Understand
• Devout chauvinists
  • Trying to defend America from
    • Blacks
    • Jews
    • Catholics
    • Other 'foreigners'
  • Insisting that 'real' Christians
    • Must be
      • Democrats
      • Republicans
    • Must not be
      • Republicans
      • Democrats
• 57 varieties of the prosperity gospel
• The perennial End Times wannabe prophets

On the other hand, crackpots and scam artists ooze out the woodwork after high-profile injustices like the Boston Marathon bombing. I'll get back to that Sunday morning.

Related posts:

• "Ignorance, Attitudes, and the Catholic Church"
  (September 2, 2012)
• "Marching Through Time"
  (April 1, 2012)
  Particularly
  • Pigeonholes, Assumptions, and an Ancient Church
• "Humans are Animals: But Not Just Animals"
  (August 31, 2011)
• "That's Funny: You Don't Look Catholic"
  (December 17, 2010)
• "Conservative? Liberal? Democrat? Republican? No, I'm Catholic"
  (November 3, 2008)