They said your soul needed savin' so they sent you off to Bible school
You knew a little more than they had heard was in the Golden Rule
Be good to everybody, be a strength to the weak
A joy to the joyful, be the laughter in the grief
And give your love freely to whoever that you please
Don't let nobody tell you 'bout who you oughtta be
And when you get damned in the popular opinion
It's just another damn of the damns you're not giving
I'm getting ready to get down, getting ready to get down, getting ready to get down
~ Josh Ritter
I include a link to my song choice at the top of the page in the event that you are not familiar with the song, or perhaps you know it and like it and just want to have another listen. Well, for this post, I am strongly encouraging you to listen to this track from Josh Ritter's 2015 release Sermon on the Rocks. Part of the joy of the lyrics lies in Ritter's rapid-fire delivery and the urge to "get down." Seriously, listen to the song. You won't be sorry.
Josh Ritter has become one of my favorite songwriters. I never met a Josh Ritter song that I didn't like. And seeing him live is on my bucket list. The man is a poet. And, like any good poet, Ritter will make you question your interpretations of what this life is supposed to be about. Although it would be easy to write this song off as irreverent, I would argue with that assessment. In the mode of Emerson, Thoreau, and especially Whitman, Ritter simply invites you to consider another point of view in regard to Biblical dictums and societal conventions.
"Getting Ready to Get Down" tells a story of a young woman whose behavior has worried her parents enough that they, at the preacher's suggestion, send her off to a Bible college in the Midwest. Four years later, she returns home, but it is obvious that the parents' plan backfired. She is ready to get down!
Ritter's songs, while sometimes critical of the Christian mindset, are also a celebration of the language and stories contained within the Bible. It is not the Bible that he takes issue with; it's the often erroneous interpretations that have become cemented into the American psyche. Certainly true of this song, its story demands that you rethink "the body as a temple for the Holy Spirit." Mainline American Christianity sets the flesh against the spirit. (I was raised Catholic. I know well the message that was delivered over and over again regarding sexuality, and that message was reinforced in a teenage culture of slut-shaming.) But there is an alternative philosophy that claims that the body and soul are one. "American sensual spirituality" would posit that, rather than seek the divine outside of ourselves (and particularly outside of our bodies), we might instead recognize the spiritual connection between body and soul. Eve ate the apple 'cause the apple was sweet.
Whether or not you appreciate Ritter's suggested rethinking of our cultural mores, I think you will have a hard time not bopping along to the song. And I cannot close this post without including perhaps my favorite line from it:
Turn your other cheek and take no chances / Jesus hates your high school dances.
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