It's nothing new for Brits to sing the blues. The first British (rock) Invasion drew its inspiration from the Rhythm and Blues artists of the southern USA: The Rolling Stones and The Beatles began their careers by covering the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson. While the defeatist tone of How Soon Is Now lies like a lonely shadow at the feet of the defiant climax of One, the accompanying lyrics of each song demonstrates their complementariness. The hopeful tone of the U2 lyrics goes beyond a generic peace, love and happiness theme to address the real work of authentic community. Immediately following the beloved lyric comes the tender warning and exhortation, “We're one, but we're not the same. We've got to carry each other.” The realization that we are not the same is both helpful and hopeful, for it points us towards the uniqueness of every person and indicates that the answers to relational problems are not to be found in the lone individual. To ignore our individual uniqueness is to enable inadequate conflict resolution and to deny ourselves the privilege and benefits of carrying one another. Still, while the picture of carrying one another satisfies our sentimental values, the reality of living in community is far more complex.
Much has been made of this notion of “carrying another” in Boundaries by psychologists Henry Cloud and John Townsend (Zondervan). The authors distinguish between two types of carrying mentioned in The Bible, both of which are found in Paul's letter to the Christian community in Galatia. The first is the sharing of another's burden, which Christ-followers are exhorted to do (Galatians 6:2). This situation refers to one in which a person is overcome beyond their physical or emotional capacities and requires help to deal with their problems. Bearing such a burden can and should actually be a delight to the one who intervenes, as they enable another to experience joy and also share in it with them.
However, immediately following Paul's initial abjuration he warns that each person should bear his or her own load (Galatians 6:5). The word load (as distinguished from burden) refers to individual responsibilities for which one must account. Carrying another's load can actually be harmful to them—though they may thank you for it—when doing so disempowers the other, teaching them co-dependancy. Moreover, according to this definition, taking someone else's load is usually cumbersome, even detrimental, for the one helping, who has often accepted only out of a sense of pride, guilt or obligation.
Both One and How Soon Is Now accurately yet differently reflect the impetus toward relationships that drives humanity. Whether One draws its inspiration from a romantic relationship or a common experience of community is not entirely clear. In either case, the presence of the other standing by to carry, rightly or wrongly, makes the image a hopeful one. There is no real despair when another is at hand because all possible resources have not been exhausted. The singular sense of the title suggests a help that is not only standing by, but one that knits the helper and helped together in interdependence rather than co-dependancy. However, the rest of the lyrics indicate the kind of messy interpersonal struggles that lay the foundation for the symbiotic relationship or community epitomized in Britain's favourite song lyric. The poignant, sometimes cryptic questions posed to the other present within the song—”Will it make it easier on you (to have) someone to blame? Did you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head? — suggest that oftentimes a lot of the unhealthy kind of load-bearing is done, demanded and refused on the way to creating the ideal community.
There is no reason to believe that the ideal community can ever be achieved in this life, though the ideal itself certainly serves as a guiding principle. Indeed, if a community is to grow, new people will be factored into the equation all the time and they are far more likely to be of The Smith's stock, full of insecurities and disappointments. One may paint an ideal picture, but the world is still full of lonely clubbers. Despite the surpassing popularity of U2's lyric, The Smiths claim to represent a disillusioned majority. While U2's name expresses the outward thrust of the second person singular, The Smiths claim the second person plural and may just have easily been called The Average Joes. The lyrics following the favourite lines from How Soon Is Now are blatantly despairing: “Well you say its going to happen now, but what exactly do you mean? See I've already waited too long and all my hope is gone.” When that special, life-changing someone never walks through the door all is lost for the shy clubber. However, even if such a relationship were to occur, it would be sure to disappoint. When one's help and hope lies entirely in another human being, disillusionment is only a question of time.
The oneness of U2's song is more like the rope of three cords to which the biblical wisdom literature refers: the rope that is not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 11:12). There is a hope in this song that goes beyond the presence of another person: a hope that restored relationship is always possible. The biblical authors identify the ultimate source of help and hope as the Creator who became the man, Jesus Christ; The One who came to restore broken intimacy between Creator and creation and who is even now restoring all created things by bringing them into relationship with Himself. He is the hope of the world because He makes authentic community possible. The community of those who trust Him, both the one to whom Paul wrote at Galatia and the international community of 2007, is meant to be an authentic, caring and carrying community with Christ as its foreman.
Both U2 and the Smiths are known for their flamboyant foremen: Bono the unabashed advocate of the cancellation of third world debt and Morrissey, the sullen, silent poster boy for sexual ambiguity and vegetarianism. The fact that each star goes by one name increases the symbolic power of their respective, definitive personae. While one is inextricable from his cause, the other makes his name as a modern patron of lost causes (not to undermine Morrissey's publicity work for PETA).
When it comes to the church community, lost causes ought to be the focus, for God's children are abjured to love as He loves and to look after the poor and downcast. Christ himself said he came to seek and save what was lost (Luke 19:10). The lost are more likely to be those belting out the drinking songs (and voting on their favourite lyrics) than those with the focus and passion to crusade for human rights. Then again, they may be the same people. Whatever the case may be, while the lyrics for One provide inspiration, we ought to keep in mind the reality of the spirit of hopelessness that also grips our age.
May we be aware of how we seek to carry others and point them towards the hope that goes beyond the affirmation offered by another. May we, in our families, businesses and churches, acknowledge the reality of human frailness which impedes the formation of authentic community. Our weaknesses display the unsurpassable value of the wholeness found as we trust Christ: He makes up for all we lack and leads us in the heavy slugging of community building. In Christ, there is cause for celebration even when our relationships are failing. Here's to a hope we can all drink to.
