Something I'm realizing the more I get older is that seldom is anything what it seems on the surface. Things have layers to them that veil differences both stark and subtle.
Artichokes in Layers
A favorite of mine in late spring is the artichoke harvest! In the days of 365 a year produce, we've forgotten the seasons force scarcity on humanity. Grandparents would recall to me how special oranges at Christmas were. But artichokes remain scarce all year except for late spring. May and June, I love the smell of artichokes boiling, the salt and butter melting together, and the irony that we're actually eating a thistle! Maybe it's the Scottish ancestry in me.
The artichoke flower has many layers to it. Boiled fresh artichoke is at least a 20-minute appetizer! you start on the outside and the very smallest leaves are also the toughest and most difficult to eat by peeling off, dipping in butter, and then scraping the very tips of the petal for the meat with your teeth. As you work your way in, you find that you can't just go straight towards the center. The petals are broad and interlocked so that finding a free petal is constantly away from where you peeled the last petal. You work your way in, and dozens of petals in, you realize that they are much more tender and have more meat available.
Eventually, you arrive at the center, where the petals are purple tipped and more akin to translucent film than actual petals. You can easily pull these off. The center contains the seeds, something that the person teaching me how to eat this delicacy called the "choke" in artichoke.
I asked her what she meant and she said, "well if you get one of these in the back of your throat, you won't enjoy it."
I deemed it good advice and scraped them out gently with a wonderfully handy tool called a spoon. What remained was the cup or bed that nourished the seeds. The heart is made entirely of the meat you've been nibbling at for nearly half an hour! A quick quartering with a knife or fork yields four bite sized morsels that after a quick dip in butter yield an experience not unlike rapture for me. It is the culmination of the entire affair that from store to stomach takes at least 100 minutes! Like fondue and other shared culinary experiences, it can't be rushed and must be enjoyed.
Mixing Sound
As I grew up, I loved listening to music. A friend introduced me to Broadway musicals and thereafter I discovered Chariots of Fire and the beauty of movie soundtracks. I guess that's a good reason why music is usually an emotional experience for me. Born in the early 70s, I was just in time for the fabulous 80s! I won't bore anyone here by telling them how or why those years were so good (mostly) for music, but when I compare it to today's music, I realize how right Jesus' parable is when it says:
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”
The old is better, and it was only natural that I wanted to learn how it was made. That was the reason I took advantage of my church's need for sound technicians and I got trained in live mixing performances. I learned gradually that there's much more to sound mixing than making sure the microphones are on and keeping feedback from happening! It took time, but God gifted me to mix well enough to go on the road.
You learn that a sound tech is often the least appreciated member of the performance. You've done your job well if no one notices your work. When a sound tech gets noticed, it's never good. What are some complaints I remember?
- "I can't hear the words!"
- "The guitars are too loud!" (oh, guitars! The bane of church sound techs!)
- "There's a dead spot in the corner. I can't hear anything."
- "It's so loud! Can you turn it up/down?"
In a nutshell, a performance sound technician takes every voice, every instrument and using electricity, shapes, mixes, and amplifies it at the correct levels so that the audience hears a harmonious and comprehensible performance. The good ones are never noticed. The great ones make the group seem like more than it is. One of the best "compliments" I ever received as a sound tech--and believe me, we remember them!--was when I was accused of using a tape deck to augment the performance with other instruments they heard! Despite what I told them, they refused to believe the tape deck was just for the multimedia presentation (a la Larry the Cucumber's Song of the Cebu), a trio of slide projectors and a professional voiceover track. I loved it because I really knew what he was talking about, but didn't dare claim it was just good mixing and some talented musicians.
I knew intuitively that harmonies between instruments can actually multiply so that the music becomes larger. It feels thicker, more substantial and it can flow together so well you'd think it's magic. Truly, it's an art and a science. There's mathematics and theories and stuff I can't easily explain, but with a good mix, you can actually combine three instruments in a way so that they sound like five or seven. It's something I can do only with practice, and even the best need some time to put it together in a performance. Like chefs, teachers, and doctors, there are the good, the bad, and the truly great.
Around the time I came back from that road tour, I had a very unique experience that shaped my life in ways I'm still discovering. I know not everyone believes in the gifts of the Spirit or that they can be correctly applied in and to the church, but I do. I went with my folks to hear a preacher who was known informally to function in giving prophetic words. In short, that man called me out of the crowd, without any prompting from me or anyone, and told me among other things that I was to get my heart out of secular work long term, short term is ok, but that God had plans for me long term. Part of that would be to keep pressing into God. Immediately, God gave me a visual of what that looked like.
Have you ever studied the temple of Israel? What I remember of my education in a Christian school tells me all of the following. The first and second temples both had a Holy Place that only the priests could enter. There were special, sacred items in that room. But the far end of that room was partitioned off with a curtain. Behind the curtain was the Holy of Holies that one priest could enter on a single day of the year to perform special rites. In that room, at least initially, was the Ark of the Covenant, the very place where God rested on Earth. The Ark was protected by the power of God and non-Levites who mishandled it were killed by this power. The curtain that partitioned the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was more than your mom's curtain set. Some scholars believed (I was told) the curtain was several feet thick, composed of curtain upon curtain upon curtain to prevent anyone from seeing into or mistakenly entering the Holy of Holies. It was considered all one curtain, however it was structured. It was to save lives from being blotted out because they were not protected by the blood of the sacrificial lamb.*
I am often awed when I consider what it says in the Gospels, that the moment Jesus Christ died on the cross on the hill of death overlooking the main road into Jerusalem, the curtain in the Holy of Holies was ripped in two. Can you imagine what the sound of several feet of fabric being ripped by the power of God actually sounds like? Consider too, what it means: the ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God blots out the sin in us and allows us to enter God's presence with His holiness and not ours.
The picture of pressing into God was of me in a mirror-like representation not unlike an 80s video like A-ha's Take On Me or Howard Jones' You Know I Love You (Don't You?). I was pushing into a liquid and yet solid curtain of God that was a powered and resistive experience. Like I could press in a millimeter at a time as much as I could possibly stand and yet pressing further took every fiber of my being. It was as if I was a priest pressing through the curtain with that sacrifice to do what God wanted and what I needed!
Since that day, I've been working, intently, to press into Him. I still feel the power and the resistance both working in my life. I couldn't back out if I tried! It's also been like an artichoke. The first layers were tough and I didn't like it much. Yet I kept going. Today it's delicious and tender, flavorful and memorable! And yet, I can't take a shortcut to the center! I am working my way around, taking in the circumference of what God reveals to me of Him.
Hearing God, Ezekiel compared the sound to the voice of many waters, or a waterfall, or floodwaters, depending on the version you check. Most languages are ill-equipped to make the comparison to what is practically indescribable. Like multiplying instruments and vocals in mixing performances, it gets layered and nuanced and suddenly you're hearing so much more!☧
* - I hope my parents got what they paid for at that school, because it sure wasn't a bargain in terms of the social experience. Some cursory research has borne out at least some of what I knew.
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