{"id":8517,"date":"2014-06-25T14:25:22","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T18:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=8517"},"modified":"2014-06-25T14:25:22","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T18:25:22","slug":"musical-rosary-8-crowning-with-thorns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2014\/06\/musical-rosary-8-crowning-with-thorns.html","title":{"rendered":"Musical Rosary #8–Crowning with Thorns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Weaving a crown out of thorns,they placed it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, \u201cHail, King of the Jews!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Matt. 27:29<\/p>\n

They talked for over an hour. Near the end, after they\u2019d been sitting in silence for a while, Burns said quietly, \u201cDo you know what Christ died of?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivers looked surprised, but answered readily enough. \u201cSuffocation. Ultimately the position makes it impossible to go on inflating the lungs. A terrible death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I find so horrifying. Somebody had to imagine<\/em> that death. I mean, just in order to invent it as a method of execution. You know that thing in the Bible? \u2018The imagination of man\u2019s heart is evil from his youth\u2019? I used to wonder why pick on that? Why his imagination?<\/em> But it\u2019s absolutely right.\u201d
\n\u2013Pat Barker, Regeneration<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is such a visceral moment, the thorns pressing into flesh. Through a process of association, I often pray this mystery for help with the tangled thornbushes inside my head: the places where my imagination goes wrong, where my reasoning becomes rationalization, where my thinking is distorted. The sins which take place in the little throne room of the skull, ruled by its crazed king: resentment, self-righteousness, entitlement, lust, self-justifying arguments with phantoms, despair.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve been doing this series, I\u2019ve noticed that two of my favorite musical genres appear almost nowhere. Where\u2019s the punk? Where\u2019s the \u201980s pop\/new-wave? The doomy anger and glitzy alienation<\/a> which fuel those genres don\u2019t really work for the rosary, I guess. But this mystery can be the exception. Here\u2019s Devo\u2019s \u201cUncontrollable Urge\u201d (it can totally be an urge for anything! Let\u2019s say that it\u2019s biting people, Suarez<\/em>, and not, like, yelling at my printer) followed by the Avengers, \u201cThin White Line\u201d (\u201cDon\u2019t go to Babylon\u201d\/But hey, Joe, I\u2019m already there<\/em>\u2013in my mind I\u2019m already gone).<\/p>\n

A snippet from Amends<\/a>, <\/em>the first night in reality-TV rehab\u2013Bentley is a producer and recovering addict, and Ana is her civilian assistant:<\/p>\n

Ana and Bentley stood in the hallway outside the men\u2019s bedroom, a little after three in the morning, under the humming and shivering overhead lights. All the cameras and the camera lighting had gone dark. They could hear a woman moaning down the hall, and the smells of sweat and vomit sometimes surfaced in the air despite the tired whickering of the ventilation system. Ana looked up and noticed the posters on the ceiling; a corner was hanging down from the one that said, YOUR MIRACLE IS COMING! GET OUT OF THE WAY. From the men\u2019s bedroom somebody shouted, \u201c<\/span><\/span>Shit!<\/em><\/span><\/span>\u201d and they heard a crash, and then some conversation, then silence. It seemed to Ana that the white light in the hallway had begun to go yellow.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is bad,\u201d Ana said. She felt smaller than usual. \u201c\u2026Is this unusually bad?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But Bentley was smiling, a little shrugging grin. She turned and looked at Ana with surprise and some contempt. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is this bad?\u201d And then, as her smile turned inward, she tapped her skull and said, \u201cThis is what it\u2019s always like in here.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Can that be true?<\/em><\/span><\/span> Ana wondered. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The moaning got louder. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLike this, really?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah, but with like a guitar solo in the background. Come on, pull it together. There\u2019s pizza in the kitchen for the crew, let\u2019s go take advantage.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n