Musings On Community (sparked by a song)

I know this isn't my typical type of post (and, um, I'm sort of impinging on The Grim Writer's territory, talking about folk-y music, sorry Grim), but I came across a couple of songs over the summer in the folk-ish genre (I don't know how folk songs are defined (that's Grim's territory), so I don't know what genre the two songs technically are) that have made an impression and made me think about important things, so I thought I'd put up a quick post today talking about one of them. :)

The first song is one that came up on one of Spotify's radio settings of some sort--I usually will skip songs that I don't recognize when that happens (I know, I know, I'm terrible), but this one I thought I'd heard before, so I listened to it, and I was glad I did! 

It is, in short, "The Night They Moved The House" by Ten Strings and a Goat Skin (one of the weirder band names I've ever come across, but oh well). 

What caught my attention initially was the driving rhythm and overall "bop-ness" of the whole song. But as I started to listen to the lyrics, they caught my attention, too. 

(I should probably state at this point that there are two things that I need in order to LOVE a song: the music has to be good--preferably either catchy or beautiful, and if there are chording moments that make my heart skip a beat, that is a plus--and the lyrics have to tell a story. There are a few exceptions to this, but in order for me to love a song, there has to be some kind of story in the lyrics. It's even better if it's tragic. This is just how I am.) 

The first thing that called to me about the lyrics was the way that the whole community came together for a purpose, for the common good, and specifically for the good of one of their members. The whole community came together to fight the injustice that Widow Victoria wasn't strong enough to fight on her own. The husbands and wives come together to work side-by-side to get this done. Side note: this visual makes me laugh, because I'm SURE that it was a woman who had this idea, and then all the women were like "yes, we're going to make our husbands do this", and then the husbands ran with it and wrote a really heroic song about it. But I digress. 
Throughout the whole song, you can feel the excitement and pride of the community to be coming together for something good, and to be doing something so out of the ordinary as a good deed. 

"Ring the church bells in the night
We'll gather at the first starlight
Bring your lamps, sleighs and mare to save the Widow's home"

The music has an almost childlike excitement about the whole thing--we're ringing the church bells! we're working through the night! subterfuge! excitement! thwarting injustice! yay! 

The community element of it reminded me of the times that my family has been the recipients of our community's generosity. We haven't had to move our house on skids across a frozen pond to avoid an avaricious landlord, but over the past nine years, my mom has had at least five hospital stays, including one that lasted ten days. (This was all due to issues that are now resolved, thank You, Jesus!) During many of those hospital stays, our parish community came together to help our family--whether it was by taking several of my siblings for the afternoon or overnight, or by dropping off supplies, or by their prayers, and so on. The most memorable support was the meal trains that were set up--my family has allergies up to here, and yet, we were brought food (that we could eat!) every day, sometimes for several weeks. It made our whole family feel loved and supported and took a lot of stress off of my dad, as well. Having friends who, when they hear that something has gone wrong will say "how can I help", or better yet "here's how I'm going to help" is a huge blessing, and something not to be underestimated. 

The second thing that struck me about the lyrics was this moment:

"You can see his breath freeze in the air

As Perè Felix said the Lord's Prayer

And passed the wine to all hands there

Then he sang a sailor's song."

I didn't know until I read the lyrics as I was writing this post that 'Perè Felix' was the lyric--until then, it had sort of sounded like someone's name. It's a beautiful enough moment even thinking it's just one of the men--you can just see the men standing solemnly in a circle in the snow, with their hats off, held in their cold-roughened hands, heads bowed as one of their number recites the Our Father. The horses stamp and blow behind them as the men pass a flask from hand to hand, each taking a gulp, until it gets back to the leader, who caps it, sticks it back in his coat, puts his hat back on his head, and begins a working song, as everyone joins in, and steps out to their horses, their wives next to them. 

Knowing that the person who says the prayer is Perè Felix, a priest, makes the moment, if possible, more beautiful, more poignant, and more Chestertonian. This isn't a priest who is distant from his people. He's helping, he's leading the fight against injustice and sin by example and with his own hands. He's leading his people in prayer, and given them strength--the mention of the wine sounds almost sacramental, although I'm guessing it's merely meant to be fortification. (Because, at the time I assume this song is referring to, i.e. a time when a house would have been able to be moved on skids and people would have horses, i.e. pre-1965, there were (almost) no evening Masses due to the canon law on fasting at the time, and so the priest saying Mass before this whole venture wouldn't probably have been feasible. This has been Super Random Catholic Facts with Samantha. You're welcome.) 
And then the priest joins in the work, singing a sailor's song. 

I don't know about you, but I think that's dang beautiful. (And it also reminds me of our priests, some of whom have brought us things during difficult times, come through for anointing of the sick, and so on. Again, they've never helped move a house, but if you asked them to, they probably would. And one of our priests definitely knows a sailor's song or two.)

So! Those are my thoughts on "The Night They Moved The House". Now...have you had the experience of being enfolded by a community like that? What's a song that's made an impression on you recently?