Kanye, Katy and Turning 60
No more askin', "Who really are you?" – Ye from “Heaven and Hell”
Kanye West’s “Heaven and Hell” (Kanye West/YouTube)
About 20 years ago, if my memory serves me right, I briefly met an up-and-coming singer named Katy Hudson who had just released her first album on a Contemporary Christian Music label, Red Hill Records, which would later that year close its doors.
Katy made history earlier this month when fans tuned into the College Football Playoff National Championship between Alabama and Georgia and were able to watch during the halftime the global debut of her video for “When I’m Gone”. Katy Perry’s video for her new single in collaboration with Swedish DJ Alesso was the first time ESPN has premiered a global music video on a live television broadcast. A far cry from the music she launched with on Red Hill under her given name at the time.
During the same game, an artist named Ye dropped a starkly black and white video ad using his song “Heaven and Hell”, a commentary on the commercialization of culture, hopelessness in the pursuit of materialism, and the dead end of recreational drugs. It is also a vision of a heavenly pursuit and the challenge of living faithfully in a world seemingly bent on destruction. In an irony not unexpected from Ye (formerly known as Kanye), the ad was sponsored by the Gap store chain, thanks to a partnership with Ye’s new clothing line.
Credit: Kanye West
Who really are you?
At a macro level, the question of identity is driving national debate now, and to some extent exacerbating polarization as well.
But at a very micro level, this is the question that turning 60 has invited me to explore. The last milestone was just a speed bump, none of my life cycle realities changed when my odometer went from 49 to 50. But by this milestone, our youngest son was off our cell phone service having secured a job that pays his bills, and none of our kids were dependent on us anymore. To top it off, Leanne and I now have five grandchildren!
A dear friend whose 80th party we attended recently, wrote to me that his 60s were some of his very best years: “You know what you are about, and you know what you couldn’t care less about in the eyes of others, and your strength is still undiminished.”
In a deep sense, I do know who I am. Although I can be defined by my past affiliations, my academic efforts, my clients, and my family, I know that my identity transcends the temporal. I know that I am not primarily a citizen of the world, I am fundamentally a citizen of another. This is the rock on which I can ground my identity. To put it another way, in the book of Matthew, Chapter 7 verses 24-27, Jesus says:
Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.
I think this is what the video for “Heaven and Hell” is getting at. Are we building our identity on towers of babel built on sand, or do we have confidence that we are investing our time and efforts in the eternal?
"Who really are you?" Ye/Kanye and Katy have been on spiritual journeys regarding their identities. This is true for us all – you and me – as the journey is inherent in what it means to be human. “This your movie, 'cause no one can play you,” Ye raps.
At 60, I am thankful that my strength is undiminished and I can answer Ye’s question with confidence. However, for all of us, the journey continues until the end – including Katy and Kanye. And for this, I am also thankful.