As many of you may know, and as all of you should know, I love Eric Peters. To be quite honest, he's surpassed Derek Webb as far as my favorite singer/songwriter/musician-type goes. Yes, I think he's that good. I can't even describe why he's so amazing, why he encapsulates all that it means to be a musician and a writer; he has to be experienced first hand. This, for example, is one of the many reasons why I love him so much:

More spirit than flesh, more questions than answers, these songs and their rough-hewn forefathers, are, nonetheless, my children. There are haggard moments when I�m unsure if I�m man or beast, loved or hated, awake or dreaming, alive or hopeless, noble or urchin; and it is in those moments that the songs get the best of me. They are sweat of the brow. They are a collective of the history that is mine: from the still-shots of a young and learning (yea, teachable at times), green (naive even) young boy hoping to communicate a vast something to those of an older lad still trying to make sense of the mystery that he is aware of; a mystery that seems to grow more mysterious with every passing day. The songs and the scraps are family. I am the proud, fallen papa who must pray for mine own humility and who must, inevitably, watch them grow up and move on.


That being said, These Three Remain is by far my favorite Eric Peters song and quite possibly my favorite song ever. Maybe it's the history nerd coming out in me, maybe it's the gorgeous guitar part, maybe it's the ability this song has to make me cry. In any event, this song is flat out amazing. The end.

Faith: it is a soldier in the 82nd Corp
the first wave into Europe,
then barely made it home
with hands like my father's
now shaking like a leaf
clinging to my rifle with no sign of peace
Hope: these are the trenches
of this God-forsaken War
I caught an hour or two of sleep
the night before
with eyes like my mother's
once bright, blue and wide
I've seen boys shot to pieces
and held their hand as they died

I remember me,
do you remember you?
I'd just as soon forget
all those things I had to do
over there I was scared
in my pain, I'll take all the blame
now these three remain

Love: it is the trembling
and the scattering of dust
it's looking out into a field
I know that I must cross
here I am at twenty,
prepared to lose my life
I do it for my country,
I would have done it for my wife

I remember me,
do you remember you?
I'd just as soon forget
all those horrible things I had to do
over there I was scared
in my pain, I'll take all the blame
now these three remain
now these three remain

- thoughts provided by Katey Orr @ 5:30 PM

Sunday, November 16, 2003

 

Anna and I had the beginnings of an interesting discussion last night. Unfortunately, we *had* to watch The Importance of Being Earnest and Strictly Ballroom (yes yes, I did watch 10 hours worth of movies yesterday!), so we never got to finish it. So I thought I'd finish it here. We were talking about Will Acuff (of SpencerAcuff, my new favorite local band) not being reformed and I said something to the effect of "Well, I guess I can't marry him then". She asked, slightly shocked, if I meant that I won't marry a guy who's not reformed. I told her that was correct and she asked why. She had an objection or two, but I'll let her comment on those. But anyway, I thought my reasoning was interesting enough to let everyone read it.

1) I would like my husband to be very absolute about what he believes. He would have to be either definitely reformed or definitely not. Not that I think it's wrong or even bad to be somewhere in the middle. And it's not that I think that people who aren't clearly either extreme don't take their faith seriously. Many of my best friends aren't really sure either way, but their faith is of utmost importance to them. It's just that for me personally, I want my husband to be one of the extremes.
2) I will never be happy attending a non-reformed church as my home church. I've attended regularly several youth groups of churches that aren't reformed and I go to Chapel Hill Bible every so often for worship and they're not reformed. But I would never be happy attending one as my home church. And, if my husband, not being reformed, were to attend whatever church I was happy at, he would probably not be happy, for the same reasons. And there will be none of that "my husband and I go to different churches" crap that I keep hearing about. Not in my household.
3) I have the tendancy to be what some might call..."not-sweet". This comes out often when I have objections to what I'm being taught (just as an aside...generally, I don't care so much at a place like Grace Church, where I know they're not reformed, because I can't expect them to teach what I believe...where as, at Good Shepherd, if someone isn't reformed and is teaching my Sunday school class (*coughfreddiecough*), I become "not-sweet" because I do expect them to be teaching the things that I believe). I would imagine that if my husband, being the spiritual leader in our marriage, had different beliefs, I would have issues with it. I mean, just knowing myself, I imagine I would. And that wouldn't so much be good.
4) Reformed boys are cuter.
5) No, really.

- thoughts provided by Katey Orr @ 12:47 PM