Ameerika Can't Stoppt Me Cuz I'ma Comin Back

I'm leaving the Fatherland tomorrow. I'm getting on a plane and going back to Ameerika (as it was spelled in one of my favorite graffiti messages, in big red letters on the side of a German building: STOPPT AMEERIKA!!!!!). But today I went downtown and took some pictures of old Heidelberg with my new camera. The album is on facebook.

It has been a week since my last post, which is a bit of a long time, but I couldn't think of anything to write. That is, until yesterday, when MTV Deutschland played a video I haven't seen in an awfully long time. Fatboy Slim's "Praise Him." Please please please go watch it here on youtube.

Since you've now watched it (right?), I won't bother summarizing the joyful experience that it is. It is a tremendous celebration of our freedom of expression, the emotional catharsis of dance and movement, and perhaps best of all, an example of people truly comfortable in their own skin doing their own thing on their own terms. It focuses on individuality without focusing on the individual, and therefore avoids narcissism or self-interest. It is simply the self.

That was the first thing I noticed. The second thing(s) I noticed were the lyrics. They are few, so they weren't difficult to pick out:

We've come a long long way together,
Through the hard times and the good,
I have to celebrate you baby,
I have to praise you like I should

I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you like I should

And that verse and chorus pretty much just repeat themselves a lot. So part of me wondered, hey, why can't this be a praise & worship song? I don't know. But it seems like it should be. Simple, to the point, all about deflecting attention, acknowledging the best of times and the worst of times. Looks like worship to me.

Anyway, I was particularly struck by this video yesterday, and I thought I'd share it with you.

I'm really looking forward to getting back to the States tomorrow. That is, I'm totally completely incredibly jaw-droppingly ecstatically stoked and pumped and crazy wicked awesomely excited about getting back to the States tomorrow. I mean, hey, much love to Germany, but it's been awfully tough being away from meine freunde this summer, and I can't wait to see them again.

I'll probably be here again once I get back for a sort of summer-in-review thing, tell you what books I've read, which movies I've enjoyed, music I've discovered, that sort of thing. I'm anxious to see what this year is going to look like, what relationships will form and change, what God is going to do in my life, in other lives, on the campus. I've got good feelings, and my flight tomorrow just brings me closer. I'll see you all on the flip side. Peace until then.