In Reply to: Re: Yeah, but your point would almost be...seems to me.. posted by ^Farmer on February 05, 2010 at 11:27:44:
To each his own. There are those who find comfort in order, and those who thrive in chaos; those who find meaning through unchanging well-defined structure, and those who function better when things are more open and unplanned. Some like to drive on straight roads, others like the bends and curves. Some people hear God in Bach, others hear God in Charlie Parker.
It wouldn't be wrong to liken my faith to Jazz.
There are people who find jazz music too chaotic and abstract, because they don't understand the rules, because the key centers change all the time. They think Jazz is all random notes. Or they might describe it as "chromaticism" when it really has nothing to do with that (it is only true from the perspective of a single stagnant key). However, trained musicians or listeners will understand that in the midst of all that "freedom" are even more stringent rules, and that even though the rules are changing every 4 beats, they are all connected to a simple elegant structure. There are simple basic rules that are repeated but with changing key centers. And the key to jazz improvisation is finding a straight line through all the changes, finding the commonalities.
I find comfort in knowing the big picture, all the general principles tend to match each other (like finding a straight line through the constant shifting). I appreciate that the people who wrote all these words down tried to pass on their knowledge to the best of their ability. It doesn't bother me to know that they were erring humans who influenced things one way or another. The human factor is not what sticks out at me (that's like faulting a Jazz improviser for a couple of false notes here and there), but rather the spiritual, despite the human handiwork. When it comes to the finer details, I find comfort in knowing that I don't have to interpret everything literally and exactly the way a lot of other Christians do. That's like the freedom of Jazz interpretation for me. For me, there is no uncertainty, no ambiguity, but rather order and clear patterns in the "chaos."