Let’s dance to David Bowie instead of mourning

Thanks to David Bowie for just how much his music meant to so many of us for so long.

One of my proudest moments as a teen was when I managed to sneak the lyrics of a song from his “Aladin Sane” album into my ‘O’ level English literature examination, using it to answer the poetry question.

I passed! (According to the BBC, David got just one O-Level – in art.)

When I left University my first paid work was in a record shop and the day I most vividly recall is the release of Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). The anticipation up to that date was extraordinary, and the joyous crowds coming in to buy the album on the day were simply endless. “Ashes to ashes” played almost as endlessly over the intercom for the next few days!

A little later on, as a newcomer to the Christian Science faith at the time, it meant a lot to me to read an interview in the UK music press in which Bowie said the only newspaper he read was The Christian Science Monitor – because he felt he could trust it. My understanding is that for similar reasons the Brixton boy employed several Christian Scientists to represent him in his business affairs, one of whom I was privileged to know personally.

Philosophically and theologically I’m not a believer in reincarnation*…but I sure loved the brilliant way Bowie practiced it as an artist within the “confines” of one of the most unconfined careers rock and roll has ever known.

With news of his passing, perhaps there’s a more apropos way to respond than mourning…the Bible says of divine Soul “You have turned my mourning into dancing” (Psalm 30).

So, in celebration of David Bowie’s creative legacy, “Let’s Dance”!

* My understanding is that we each have an immortal, unchanging, spiritual individuality we can discern and demonstrate in healing, step by step, through spiritual growth both before and after “the change called death” (Mary Baker Eddy).

** By Photobra|Adam Bielawski (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons