Over the Over the Rhine

I laugh when people do stupid things. This is not mean, because, quite often I am the person doing the stupid thing. Today’s episode:

My autographed copy of Over the Rhine’s “Drunkard’s Prayer” arrived in the mail today. When I left to pick up my Monday afternoon discipleship-group girls, I popped it in the car’s CD player. The junior high is near my house, so the second song was just starting when I pulled up to the curb. Karin sang, “I was born to laugh; I learned to laugh through my tears . . .” and then a discordant, electronic, counter-melody began. Hmmm. Maybe they’re going for edgy here. Kinda fits the tone of the words. I mean, I really wanted to give this song a chance, but everything about the tinny notes was off. The meter, the key — it was like they’d just recorded some random, unrelated tune on top of an otherwise beautiful song and ruined it. Was this supposed to be art? How was I going to tell Mike Snyder that, as much as I wanted to love this song, it just didn’t work? It sounded like a radio station bleeding in, or . . .

a cell phone.

I missed the call. That’s okay. It’s hard to talk when you’re laughing.