Tuesday's Musical Notes
Welcome to Tuesday and another edition of the best blog on the internetosphere!!! Other than being introduced to new words, that may or may not exist, this is a place that you can find out some interesting facts about favorite artists and songs, and maybe just a few things about yourself along the way. Search for your favorite musical subject by typing in a key word in the search bar on the far right... you see it... yup that's the one... go on give it a try...we've referenced so much music in the last 6 years that surely one of the songs making your top ten have been given the Musical Notes treatment. ("Don't call me Surely" from the 1980 movie Airplane!) We welcome you !!! Thanks for tuning in!!!
Unless you have been living in a remote area of the Amazon jungle, some part of the Himalayas, or have just chosen to not be subjected to it, chances are you have been introduced to social media or social networking sites. In 2017, social media has many familiar faces, and even more coming to the net everyday. ("60+ Social Networking Sites You Need To Know About In 2017" from makeawebsitehub.com) As of May of this year, ebizmba.com has identified these as the top social media sites: "Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites"
There are those who wonder what the attraction may be to these sights were it appears that many have completely thrown their privacy away. Precious thoughts, feelings, and yes even sometimes "animated" debates can be found by millions within a couple of clicks of the mouse. No wonder it always feels like somebody's watching me...
What do you do when your father happens to be record producing royalty and the owner at Motown Records? You make a record, even against your father's wishes. You employ childhood friends Michael and Jermaine Jackson, (yes, THOSE Jacksons) to do backup vocals on your first single from the album . You allow label reps to disguise your album by listing your artist name as Rockwell, to keep any charges of nepotism from being levied. (Kennedy William Gordy (named for John F. Kennedy and William "Smokey" Robinson) just doesn't quite have the same "rocked well" cool factor, now does it?) Finally, you make one of the weirdest music videos to ever grace the airwaves.
All of this colludes together to make Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me" into a #2 hit at Billboard. This however, is where the "One Hit Wonder" label gets attached very quickly to Rockwell's career. The release of his next 2 albums (1985's Captured and 1986's Genie) would come no where near the Gold status of Somebody's Watching Me. Rockwell had 10 singles from the 3 albums, none of which ever achieved the status or chart rankings of today's feature song. The next highest single peaked at #35.
It is easy to see where paranoia can come into play when you have the feelings described in "Somebody's Watching Me". Let's face it, friend we have done this to ourselves. Gone are the days when there was the expectation of having privacy in our homes and our communication with others. Between legislation and modernization, we have placed ourselves, 23 years later than what George Orwell predicted in 1984, under the watchful eye of "Big Brother". Yes, in case you were wondering, I grow more Libertarian by the day...
Aiding in this careful observation of our lives, is the hand of social media. Please don't get me wrong, as I use social media everyday for communication and re-connection purposes. But there is a sharing on this outlet that goes way beyond finding old classmates and letting our choir know when the retreat is going to happen. This is a personal observation, perhaps one you may or may not share, but, I don't need to know about some things that are going on in your life. And in the occasion whereby we might disagree, my oh my, the conversation can very quickly turn into a discussion of my ancestry and your desire for my eternal destination. Dear sweet female ancestors of mine had a word for this type of rhetoric...it's just plain "ugly" and honestly I don't have the desire nor the time to instruct you on the finer elements of the English language. Besides, in the midst of all of this, there are other's who ARE watching us.
If you have given your life to Jesus, placed your faith on His sacrifice for your eternal destination, and are diligently trying every day to become more like Him, there are those who will be watching your every move to see if you mess up. On our most Christ like days, in our humanity, we will mess up. But there is no point in exacerbating the misstep by publishing it on the World Wide Web. (Yup that's what the www part stands for at the beginning of most websites.) Notice the "World Wide" part of that. Everyone in the world now has access to the life that you lead. While you may not have asked for the responsibility of being Jesus to the world, Christian friend, it is the atmosphere in which we live.
The apostle Paul wrote about being a potential stumbling block to others by the things we say and do. In, The Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans 14 - New King James Version of the Bible, The Message Paraphrase of the Bible parallel, Paul is teaching folks that they should not be judgmental about the way some in their community chose to worship. I think this also applies to the example that we who follow Jesus should set to those who are preChristian. Verses 12-13 in the NKJV put it this way:
12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. 13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.
You see dear friend, in our efforts to be transparent (are you as tired of this word as I am?), we can sometimes cause our actions to be stumbling blocks or road blocks for others, or even worse, cause harm to our witness of who Jesus is in our lives. This is where Christians so many times EARN the label of hypocrisy.
So as you get ready to make your daily, and for some, hourly, trip to facebook or other social media, be reminded, there are those who know that you profess Jesus as your boss, that you are "down with the King"... and most assuredly, you can know that somebody's watching...
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving you,
Randy
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