Regina Spektor, “Laughing With”

I always liked Paste Magazine’s tagline, “Signs of life in Music, Film, and Culture.” I don’t know that anyone at Paste thinks in particularly theological ways, so I’ve been tempted to co-opt the tagline for Protecting Veil. (“Life” for an Orthodox Christian has obviously more nuanced meaning than for most people.)

In any case, always on the lookout for signs of life, and for (what seem to be) sparks of real inspiration, I was wholly pleased to discover Regina Spektor’s song, “Laughing With,” on her latest album, “Far.” That other songs on the album have theological themes (“Blue Lips,” among others) suggests that the album may well merit a proper review. For now, however, I just wanted to provide the lyrics to “Laughing With.”

Particularly noteworthy (of course) is Spektor’s criticism of caricatures of god, and of straw man arguments that could only satisfy the true believer (the atheist, that is). Also worth noting, for anyone wanting to deal with religious subjects in art, is that Spektor seems particularly effective by, rather than overtly attacking, simply holding up a mirror to culture.
(Oh…and the music is excellent, too.)

“Laughing With”

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God when the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God when it’s gotten real late and their kid’s not back from that party yet

No one laughs at God when their airplane starts to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God when they see the one they love hand in hand with someone else and they hope that they’re mistaken
No one laughs at God when the cops knock on their door and they say, “We’ve got some bad new, sir”
No one’s laughing at God when there’s a famine, fire or flood

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they’re about to choke

God can be funny
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’ve lost all they got and they don’t know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize that the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God when they’re saying their goodbyes

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they’re about to choke

God can be funny
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus