… and the livin’ is easy
"Summertime and the livin' is easy..." at least that's what the song says; in reality, especially now, nothing seems easy. As the weather finally turns warm, I can feel myself becoming an odd Summery cocktail- mixed with equal parts want of interaction and need for constructive solitude. We're all just doing the best that we can. I will occasionally fondly remember the days of going to Target without a strategy, a mask, or this pervasive albeit deserved anxiety that has consumed the world. The fish may indeed be jumping, and the cotton likely is high-- but living is in no way easy.
Of course, that's the point of the song. Gershwin's mournful melody and chords belie the words of Dubose Heyward (author of the original play Porgy upon which Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess is based). Sung to a baby in the first act as a lullaby, the words are sweet, self-aware, and almost whimsical. "Your daddy's rich, and your ma is good looking..." However, after both parents perish in a hurricane in act two, the same song is sung again, but the words hit harder. "But till that morning, there's a nothing can harm you, with daddy and mama standing by..." And, though the story of this small, broken family isn't the central narrative of the opera, it underscores the broader narrative. I wouldn't say Porgy and Bess has an "ending" because nothing ever really gets resolved. It's a small window into the community of Catfish Row; we see things change, we see things progress, but nothing ever really gets better.
... and that's precisely why I choose the music of the sanctuary rather than that of the opera house. Don't get me wrong, I love Gershwin; but as a Christian, I'd rather read the line "One of these mornings, you're gonna rise up singing" as a resurrection. In Act one when Clara sings the lyrics of Summertime to her baby, its an examination of life's ephemera and a resolve to cling to the moment. In Act three when Bess sings the same song to the newly orphaned child, it's an acknowledgement of change and a relinquishing of hope. But the church knows that seasons have always been temporary, and we've been promised that joy comes in the morning. Life isn't easy, but God is good.
