More Internet Lacunae: the 1980’s

Does the internet have everything cool on it? No. The 1980’s are not really on the internet.

What could be cooler than Prince’s “Good Love,” as he originally recorded it in 1986? Can it be found anywhere on the interwebs? Negative.

What about when Steely Dan singer Donald Fagen covered Jimmy Reed “Bright Lights, Big City” for the closing scene of the movie version of the Jay McInerney novel of the same name? I defy you to find it.

(You can find “Century’s End” easily enough–and it’s worth it, totally worth it–but that is not the song I am talking about.)

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How do you know time has passed? Like, in a big way?

When you see the light of the sunrise on the Twin Towers, while Michael J. Fox eats the loaf of bread he got in exchange for his horn-rimmed sunglasses and calls himself “you” for the last time–and you think to yourself, ‘I remember seeing that closing scene in the theatre, and concluding that the movie version sucked compared to the book, and I visited the roof deck of those very same towers multiple times after that movie came out–on various trips and wanderings around the Big Apple.

‘But my summer seminarian, who is a college graduate, considerably older than I was when I stayed up all night reading Bright Lights Big City cover-to-cover, on a school night during my junior year of high-school–this fine, full-grown young man who is staying with me for the summer–he has no real memory whatsoever of the Twin Towers even existing at all.’

Communication Skills

Jesus put His finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then He looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” — that is, “Be opened!” — And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. (Mark 7:33-35)

In this day and age, communication skills are very important. To succeed, we have to be good at P. R. We could say that the beginning of the 21st century is the Age of Communication Skills.

Right after Holy Baptism, the priest or deacon touches the ears and lips of the newly baptized and says, “Be opened.” The minister says, “May the Lord open your ears to hear His Word and your lips to proclaim His praise, to the glory of God the Father.”

The Creator became man to give us the most important communication skills. He took our human nature to Himself so that we could communicate with Him.

Let’s consider the gift that Christ has given us by opening our ears and loosening our tongues. To try to understand it, we have to go back to the beginning.