Never Walked In High Heels

“Nobody laughs at God in a hospital  

Nobody laughs at God in a war.

Nobody laughs at God when they loose everything they’ve got

And don’t know what for.

But God can be funny at a cocktail party…”

 

The first time I heard Spektor’s new song I was struck. Now before we go any further, I’m no music critic. In fact I pride myself on being a musical idiot. But I am, however quite adept at thinking. This is how I was struck by Spektor’s new single the first time through.  

 

In the chorus she sings about when God can be funny, such as when we are at a cocktail party or ask Him for something specific as we would do to Santa.  But it’s the juxtaposition of this with some of man’s greatest hardships which made me think: now believing in God is quite a luxury.

 

See, I think most theists will listen to “Laughing With” will hear the idea that ‘God can be funny’ at places that the elites of society dwell. After all, there is the ongoing belief in our world that we, at our best and most developed, have no need for God or at least to believe in him. We’ve somehow evolved or grown up enough that we don’t need to ask anyone for what we want for Christmas.

 

Spektor’s family emigrated from the USSR in 1989. As she is often cited as being a Jewish-American musician, one can only imagine the internal conflict between the Jewish beliefs of her family while living within a Communist system. This is where the notion of Spektor’s theism comes into play.

 

For many of us, not believing in a god of some sort is quite the luxury. What it must mean is the complete confidence in one’s self and one’s position in society. I think it means being able to look in the mirror and say, “this is all I ever need.”

 

As a disabled women, that is a luxury I cannot afford.

 

Its not that God is funny, but if you can look at just yourself and say ‘I am enough,’ then yes, why shouldn’t it be amusing? Why should you ever have to wait on something that Santa God is going to give you when you can go out and buy it yourself? And if you don’t get it from Santa God, who is supposed to give you everything you need, why cry when you can laugh about it?

 

On my bad days I believe that there is a God out there simply because I have to. On these days I am with the ones who need justice and need for the world to change. Doors get slammed in my face, bus drivers insult me, I have no idea how I’m going to eat my next meal. I can’t look at myself and say “I am enough. I am free. This is all I need.” There must be something more. I’m not satisfied here.

 

But for those of us who do not laugh at God, who believe because we have to, we do it so that we can laugh somehow.