Suffering

On Sunday mornings at Highland, we’ve been reflecting on the overlap between some contemporary songs and some ancient songs.  The contemporary songs we’ve been exploring come from television’s “The Travel Channel” which produced a list of the “Top 40 Travel Songs of All Time.”[1] These are the songs which people say they most love to listen to when they drive or fly.  Song #37 on that list is by a group called U2.  The song is entitled, “Where the Streets Have No Name.”  Bono, the group’s lead singer, was inspired to write the song after learning that on certain streets in Northern Ireland it was possible to determine the religion and wealth of a person simply from which side or end of the street they lived.  That is, the name of the street told you something about the religion and wealth of those who lived there.  The street names served to divide and segment people.  In an interview, Bono remarked, “That said something to me.  And so I started writing about a place where the streets have no name.”  Let’s listen to the first part of that song: I wanna run, I want to hide, I wanna tear down the walls, That hold me inside, I wanna reach out, And touch the flame, Where the streets have no name, I want to feel, Sunlight on my face, I see the dust cloud disappear, Without a trace, I want to take shelter from the poison rain, Where the streets have no name… The song is cry for things to change.   Bono hopes for a time when people will no longer be divided and segmented—a time when streets have no names.  It may seem an odd travel song.  But I think people voted for it because it’s about the ultimate journey—the journey from the way things are to the way things ought to be.

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