Musical Musings: Ordinary People, John Legend

Now playing: John Legend - Ordinary People
via FoxyTunes

"Ordinary People"

[Verse 1]

Girl I'm in love with you
This ain't the honeymoon
Past the infatuation phase
Right in the thick of love
At times we get sick of love
It seems like we argue everyday

[Bridge]

I know i misbehaved
And you made your mistakes
And we both still got room left to grow
And though love sometimes hurts
I still put you first
And we'll make this thing work
But I think we should take it slow

[Chorus]

We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
Cuz we're ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow

[Verse 2]

This ain't a movie no
No fairy tale conclusion ya'll
It gets more confusing everyday
Sometimes it's heaven sent
Then we head back to hell again
We kiss then we make up on the way

[Bridge]

I hang up you call
We rise and we fall
And we feel like just walking away
As our love advances
We take second chances
Though it's not a fantasy
I Still want you to stay

[Chorus]

We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
Cuz we're ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow

[Verse 3]

Take it slow
Maybe we'll live and learn
Maybe we'll crash and burn
Maybe you'll stay, maybe you'll leave,
maybe you'll return
Maybe another fight
Maybe we won't survive
But maybe we'll grow
We never know baby youuuu and I

[Chorus]

We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
Cuz we're ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow (Heyyy)
We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
Cuz we're ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow (Take it slow oh oh ohh)
This time we'll take it slow


I know I've done John Legend before, and I know that you don't expect to find secular music in a devotional. Bear with me. After all, if Paul could find the Creator in Athens' Unknown God (Acts 17:23), surely I can find something worth working with in a secular song?

When I first fell in love with this song and added it to my library, I marveled at the honest treatment of relationships in it. To take such a frank view of love, to admit that relationships take work and time to survive, but that in the end, it's worth it... I really liked it. And yes, I still see that in here, and that may well be why the original musing is included (if it gets included. If not, you can go back to my website hjourdenjackson.blogspot.com and read it).

But see, there's something I want us to consider beyond romantic love here. You see, while this is really directed at two people in a romantic relationship, there are truths here that go so much deeper, that call to the truths I find in existentialism. You see, there are things we can learn on the small level, to use in relationships with our lovers, but also to expand to a larger view of things and apply to how we relate to other people (and to be fair, Beloved, sometimes we need to take the way we treat others, outside of our family, and offer our families the same level of consideration and respect; it's too easy to take our loved ones for granted. But that's not the main thrust of my point today, so you're getting off easy).

I've discussed existentialism before, and I want to recap it very briefly here, just so that we define our terms. To me, existentialism is about stripping away all the definitions and labels (essence) we carry and getting back to the basics of sheer existence before we make value judgments about people. It strips away behavior and descriptors and respects and loves on the one thing we all share in common; we all exist.

There's more to it than just that, both my understanding and concept of existentialism, and to the larger ideas of Kierkegaard and Sartre (don't worry, you don't have to remember or know how to pronounce or spell the names). But for the purposes of what I want to discuss, that's the core: stripped to the basics, we are all the same. We are all, as Legend sings, Ordinary People.

So what? What's the big deal? Well, it's easy to forget that sometimes. It's easy to forget that there are very few truly evil people in the world (I won't say there aren't any; history proves me wrong on that count), but there are also very few true saints. Indeed... there are far more of the evil sorts than there are of the perfect; there's only been one of the perfect variety! The rest of us? We're all the same folks, the same average Joes and Joses and Joannas (or JoAmbers!).

That means we all make the same sorts of mistakes all the time. We mean to do well, but we make mistakes. He forgot your birthday. He doesn't hate you... he just... forgot. She interrupted you during the game. She doesn't hate you... she just... forgot. She's human, same as you. He's human, same as you. He cut you off in traffic. Her foot slipped off the brake at the red light and she brushed your fender. He miscounted your change. She wasn't Suzy Sunshine. Maybe they're having the same bad day you are... or worse. Maybe she's worried about a sick child she had to leave at home because she's working two jobs just to make ends meet. Maybe he's worried about a distant wife. Maybe she's worried about a mother who fell down at home, or a grandparent who's just been hospitalized. Maybe he just got distracted. Who knows? What was it the last time you were the one making the mistake?

Beloved, this life is short. We get 70? 90? 100? years on earth? And that's if we're lucky. We might get 2 minutes, 2 months, 2 years, 2 decades... you get the idea. You could spend your entire life going from one upset to the next, always angry with someone for some perceived slight. I'd about guarantee you won't get 100 years that way. Why should you waste the few days you get being angry and carrying a grudge?

Isn't it preferable to let go of the little stuff? Isn't it easier to forgive every time, 7 times, 70 times, 77 times, 490 times... or even yet, to choose to not let little stuff get under your skin? It's easy to forgive 490 times if there was never any offense taken. (Where am I getting those numbers? What's this 490 nonsense? Matthew 18:21-35. The Seventy Seven Times is considered by some to actually be seventy sevens of times, thus not 77, but 70x7=490!)

We're just ordinary people. We don't know which way to go. Maybe we should take it slow. Because Beloved, Life is too short not to spend yourself on Love.