Lent Day 29: Ear Worms

Throughout the day I make many pop culture references, some of them even out loud.  And quite often the reference is a band name or a song, like "YMCA," the "The Macarena" or our family's current favorite, the theme song from "The Cleveland Show," which apparently Noah and his fellow scouts sang incessantly while Denise drove them to a recent Boy Scout camping trip.

I had been thinking of these "ear worms" while shopping at Trader Joe's for a party I attended tonight.   As an employee asked if I wanted help, on cue "Love Will Keep Us Together" started blaring from the store's speakers.  He apologized for the "poor music" and started showing me esoteric snacks.  I opted for the Wasabi Wow mix and marveled how this 70's ear worm popped up just as I was thinking about them.

This entire Lent I've given up any kind of audio (radio, iPod) while commuting.  And these days I've been doing a lot more traveling and am really missing listening to anything.  Apparently one of the side effects is mentally playing back any music I have heard, which has mostly been at church.

Last Wednesday, at the Vespers service that Amy and Miriam performed a mini-play, our church used the Holden Evening Prayer, written by Marty Haugen... yes the one that some songs written with 6 flats.  I hadn't played that music in a couple of years and probably hadn't even been to a service with that musical setting for about the same span.

For two days I heard the final song in my head, not the whole thing but just the melody.  It stuck with me in all my quiet moments (of which there were many); on Friday at work while walking down the stairwell to the cafeteria I finally started humming the melody.  I had held off from humming outside my head until I could find the starting pitch.  Amazingly I replicated the entire melody -- rhythm, all the intervals, reverberating in the vertical concrete speaker cabinet.  The hauntingly beautiful melody resonated within and outside of me.  But I couldn't remember the words.

Yesterday I was cleaning up the house and found my copy of the Holden music.  Without thinking I sat down and started playing the music (remembering most of it).  When I got to the last piece, the "Final Blessing," (click here to hear it from a music catalog page) I finally got to sing the words I had been missing:


Let us bless our God
    Praise and thanks to you
May God Creator bless us and keep us
may Christ be ever light for our lives
may the Spirit of Love be our guide and path
for all of our days
    A - men

That ear worm finally receded, quite peacefully.