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Living Just to Breathe

by Chris Alexion, Copyright January 09, 2008, all rights reserved. 3391 views

In my last post I reviewed The Sun and the Moon by The Bravery, and the philosophy nerd in me can't avoid digging a little deeper into the track "Believe." Now, of course we're talking about a song, not a philosophy textbook. A song can have multiple layers of meaning, and I don't want to be the person who squeezes complex theories out of basic entertainment. Still, Endicott voices powerful doubts about modern man and shows us how empty materialism really is. While he's no Jon Foreman, Endicott is a capable lyricist: "The faces all around me, they don't smile; they just crack, / Waiting for our ship to come, but our ship's not coming back. / We do our time like pennies in a jar–what are we saving for?"

In this blog I've mentioned the "apologetics of Ecclesiastes," meaning that Solomon's cynical musings are actually a defense of biblical faith. The Preacher's rough skepticism undermines major non-Christian forms of thought, emphasizing that everything is vanity–lighter than air. As Kansas put it, "Everything is dust in the wind." Solomon's sarcastic critique would embarrass many "positive," "inspirational" Christian authors.

"Believe" does much of the same thing. Though I don't know whether Endicott writes from a biblical perspective, his words find fault with modern materialism and reveal man's need for salvation. When Solomon begins his own quest for salvation, he goes first to false saviors. He becomes thoughtful and philosophical. "I sought wisdom and knowlege," he says. "I was the wisest man you ever saw. Then I realized one tragic fact: the wise man and the foolish man both die like dogs. Vanity of vanities; all is vanity." Next Solomon devoted himself to pleasure. He didn't withold anything from himself–food or wine or sex or luxury. In the end these too were meaningless. Nor did workaholism help. "I was king in Jerusalem," he says; "I threw myself into my work. It was all emptiness and chasing the wind."

Endicott, in "Believe," finds the same emptiness, though (given the band's name) he tackles the subject from the angle of fear. "There's a smell of stale fear that's reeking from our skins; / The drinking never stops because the drinks absolve our sins / We sit and grow our roots into the floor / But what are we waiting for?" Endicott, like Solomon, dismisses both the life of philosophy and the life of pleasure, the pull of tradition and the hope of newness, as vain. Solomon describes human endeavor done "under the sun," or without reference to God, as a meaningless cycle that never goes anywhere. "Behold," he says, "there is nothing new under the sun." Similarly, Endicott points out ironically that "Something's always coming; you can hear it in the ground / It swells into the air with the rising, rising sound, / And never comes, but shakes the boards and rattles all the doors; / What are we waiting for?"

The promised newness never arrives. In fact, all of our human activities "under the sun" are pointless because we have no end–no goal. Human beings save their time and money–but what are they saving for? Endicott realizes that a central human need is going unfulfilled. In an age of the material, we need souls; in an age of fear, we need courage. In an age of cynicism, we need faith. "So give me something to believe, / 'Cause I am living just to breathe / And I need something more to keep on breathing for." Endicott realizes that his only reason for breathing is to take another pointless breath; he lives merely to continue his own existence.

We really do need something more. And getting to that point is a major goal of Christian apologetics.

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