I liked them so much that I bought their CD. Here is a song from their album. I admit that I was hesitant at first to buy this album. I read their description and it said: “Gypsy funk. Zen inspired, Asia music from America.” Or something of the sort. And I was thinking, “yo, I’m Christian. God won’t like it if I heard some Buddhist or Gypsy stuff. I don’t wanna taint my mind.” And I thought about the whole situation in my mind for a long time before I bought it.
During the whole contemplation, I definitely felt a conviction that I was one of those closed narrow-minded people that New Yorkers hate. However, I also felt a betrayal to God, to whom I promised that I would keep pure. I was afraid that this music – this deeply intimate artform – would enter into my ears and make me Zen Buddhist or something. I didn’t want to return back to being Buddhist and go through the whole Christian journey again. However, as I heard the lyrics more, I realized that there was nothing bad them. The songs were pure. They were human. They talked of normal things, and the beats were like the other funk music I listened to. It was like a breath of fresh air listening to them, so much so that I took off my Ipod blasting Christian music.
I admit that some Christian music focuses so much on ideals that it loses touch with humanity. Likewise, I often get so caught up with being pious that I forget life’s most important thing, which is the interaction between different personalities. Sometimes, I forget that art is conversation between people. Sometimes, I get so caught up in ideals that I automatically dismiss some artists and their artworks. However, this time I decided to do otherwise. This time, I decided to look deeper than the music and the ideals and at the personality of the artist beneath the art.
I believe that being open-minded is a good thing. Even if the piece of artwork is racy or totally different from the beliefs I hold to be true, I consider the interaction between artist and viewer to be worth it, because when I look at a piece of art, I’m not looking at the surface. I’m looking at something more beautiful, which is the soul that created the art. And it’s totally worth it if all that I have to go through is some dark lyrics.
I bought the SisterMonk CD with a smile. The guitarist smiled back and even gave me a discount.
