God’s Song [sung again and again]
I was speaking to a friend today at the grocery store, he said to me during his darkest moments of bipolar-induced schizophrenia and about to lose his over two-decade career, he called out to God and said, “I’m Joe, God, not Job. Joe. Not Job.”
I had just told him that God must be bored with me again, dangling lightning between my eyes, just seeing if I would snap.
So I say, “I’m Rachel, God, not Job. Rachel. Not Job.”
Another friend quotes a Randy Newman lyric to me – “Lord, if you won’t take care of us/Won’t you please please let us be?” And I hear Etta James’ rendition in my mind of God’s Song:
God’s Song
Cain slew Abel Seth knew not why
For if the children of Israel were to multiply
Why must any of the children die?
So he asked the Lord
And the Lord said:
“Man means nothing he means less to me
than the lowiliest cactus flower
or the humblest yucca tree
he chases round this desert
cause he thinks that’s where i’ll be
that’s why i love mankind
I recoil in horror from the foulness of thee
from the squalor and the filth and the misery
How we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me
That’s why i love mankind”
The Christians and the Jews were having a jamboree
The Buddhists and the Hindus joined on satellite TV
They picked their four greatest priests
And they began to speak
They said “Lord the plague is on the world
Lord no man is free
The temples that we built to you
Have tumbled into the sea
Lord, if you won’t take care of us
Won’t you please please let us be?”
And the Lord said
And the Lord said
“I burn down your cities–how blind you must be
I take from you your children and you say how blessed are we
You must all be crazy to put your faith in me
That’s why i love mankind
You really need me
That’s why i love mankind”
~ Randy Newman