Of Guitars and Boys

One saves a culture through the senses (a catholic thought if I have ever had one); and of course one must save the ear through the fingers; or so I am now inclined to think. For it is the fingers which grasp and pick and pull and hold that instrument we now call the guitar.  And a good thing those fingers do; for as sure as boys are messy their hands are always being filled, with sticks turned weapons or video game controllers.

Now these things are not bad in themselves (yes even the weapons can serve to keep peace and order) but they do lack the fundamental or lets say obvious ability to connect us to the divine.  And that is what culture must do, it must help us to engage in the cult, a seductive and frightening word, which means at its heart ‘to worship.’ Music does this.  The guitar can do this, if we teach our boys to hear God through their fingers.