Reinvention, Reordering, Rebirth

I thought I knew Bohemian Rhapsody. I’ve heard it so many times… Freddy Mercury and Queen, the stage-show ‘We Will Rock You’, I’ve played it (badly!) for children to sing… Then I heard it performed by 13-year-old Angelina Jordan. It has different emphases, suggesting different meanings. It’s different, reinvented.

Nick Cave talks about life’s turning points: ‘…a marriage breakdown, of a transgression that has a devastating effect on a person’s life, or health issues, or a betrayal, or a public shaming, or a separation where someone loses their kids…

‘…It shatters them completely into a million pieces and it seems like there is no coming back. It’s over. But in time they put themselves together piece by piece. And the thing is, when they do that they are a different person, a changed, more complete, more realised, more clearly drawn person.’

He describes a ‘complex re-ordering of ourselves’ : ‘I think that’s what it is to live really – to die in a way and to be reborn.’

Musing…

…My significant turning points: leaving home, getting married, classroom teaching, becoming a parent, moving house, discovering and rediscovering faith, becoming a headteacher, bereavement, retirement… times of reinvention, reordering.

…Jesus’ words to Nicodemus: ‘No-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again… Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit…’  Spiritual rebirth, reordering, reinvention… God’s role, my role…

Angelina sang: ‘Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth.’… Facing the truth, we start to understand and discover Nick’s ‘different… more complete, more realised, more clearly drawn person’ and Nicodemus’  ‘born again’.

Charlie Chaplin said: ‘Life is a tragedy when seen in a close-up, but a comedy when seen in a long-shot.’

In the middle of tragic turning points, life can be distressing, unsettling, perplexing. Change is happening. We’ve lost control.

When we step back, give ourselves space for reinvention, reordering and rebirth, we discover that our close-up tragedy becomes a long-shot comedy with a happy ending.