Out of Mayhem, Hope: Reflecting on Lady Gaga’s Mayhem

Lady Gaga and I have three things in common. We have approximately 5 feet, we have Italian inheritance and we are not oblivious to the dark cloud that is depression. In recent years, Gaga has continuously changed his musical projects towards a deeper reflection and honesty while keeping his finger on the bold and inducing rhythms of the dance for which he is known. Your latest studio album, Violence, It feels as sandy as it seems. It is an honest reflection of the personal chaos that it supports (for example, the desolation of depressive spells, battles with body image) and invites us to face the chaos that exists around and within us, not with terror, but with tenacy.

I have had Violence In a strong rotation after its March launch, and not only because or its catchy melodies or ingenious rhymes, but also for the spiritual nuances that I obtain from multiple clues and the tranquility of the scattered hope through its 53 minutes.

The internal chaos of us

ViolenceImages and mood evoke a strong feeling of darkness and sadness, a pinch of Gothic literature and pure chaos (NPI). We entered ViolenceThe world of intensity and snappiness of “disease”, which represents the allegorical battle that Gaga struggles with the parts of itself that fears and despises. These overflowing parts that fear so much terrify it without hope in sight while sings bleakly:

You are so tortured when you sleep
Full of all your memories
It extends to you, and nobody is there
Like a God without prayer

“Disease” almost serves as a dark diary entry on the gloom that can permeate a soul and a mind on the darkest nights. It is a desperate prayer that will be familiar to anyone who has fought with their own mental anguish. Despite being an electro-pop song, “disease” cannot hide the folded songs contained within its lyrics.

While continuously in chaos with Gaga, she invites us to the dance floor, chaos, with “abracadabra” that serves as a battle cry. To the limit, since only anxiety and depression can make us, she rushes to recognize the danger:

Keep your mind in the distance
When the devil turns
Open me in your heart tonight
In the magic of the dark light of the moon
Save me from this empty fight
In the game of life

Evil lurking can be interpreted as the terror of an unexpected depressive episode or an anxiety attack. Note that Gaga is aware of this beast and must be on guard, since he can jump at any time. However, she shouts another for protection, a small splinter of hope that perhaps something beyond this chaos can save it.

With this persistent chaos in the distance, we implore us in the most gaga-beque way to dance simply for our lives. The underlying idea in “Abracadabra” is to face the things that affect our souls, such as the turbulence of mental health, dancing our path and through them. In the fight against depression and anxiety chaos, Gaga’s weapon is dance.

A few clues later, “Perfect Celebrity” leads us more deeply to Gaga’s reflection on chaos and paradox than fame and notoriety have brought to their lives. One of the most disturbing songs of the album, finds its fight with the pressure of being a modern idol and glamor and pain related. She sings bluntly:

I look so hungry but I look so good …
Drown in fame and I hope I put your high
Sit in the first row
Look the princess dying

I have become a notorious being
Find my clone, she is asleep on the roof now
I can’t drop me
You love to hate me
I am the perfect celebrity

Atráme while bouncing
Without sound
Save me, I’m underground
You can’t find me
Hollywood is a ghost city

Lady Gaga has been in the center of attention enough time to recognize the negative impact that fame can have on a soul, and we dare to listen to recognize our role in that (“You love to hate me”). From an external perspective, fame can be attractive for its glamor, awards and pressures. However, Gaga is fast to be honest about the illusion of fame and chaos that can add to the life of one, whether it is body image problems (“I look so hungry but I look so good”) or the loneliness of life (“I cannot city”). Gaga reminds us that there is no perfect celebrity, just a defective being with its own struggles, demons and chaos.

Out of Mayhem, hope comes

Must or ViolenceThe songs of ‘S are dance inducing (“zombieboy”) when the lyrics sacrifice the depth and deserve a moment of contemplation (“Shadow of a man”). And in fact, dance is the form of hope of Gaga when facing chaos or terror. She announces “dance or die” in the music video of “Abracadabra” and literally dances for her life against her internal demons in the most metaphorical way she can.

Now, dance does not have to literally mean “dance” despite the rate. It is simply what maintains a door at the door of the Afroade the darkest nights of depressive episodes and introid thoughts. For some, that could be community, hobbies, family or friends. Although I have also had my right part of panic attacks in the mid -night, intrusive thoughts that kept me at home for days and depressive episodes that seemed that the light was not in sight, I finally had a hope that I kept me stronger than a sacred television program than a sacred community, Hobby or TV Comfort.

I was sure that God would do it, somehow, it via me through chaos. Like those who know God, we can do more than “dance” through the chaos of our souls. We can live with the active hope that God writes a story for our lives and works all things forever, even when pain is tangible and feels too great to endure.

The late Presbyterian Minister Frederick Buechner had a unique perspective on how hope can be formed outside Mayhem, particularly when we change our gaze to a quiet light on the horizon. Butenner spoke about the desolation of depression in this way:

Being in a state of depression is like that [Psalm 131]. He is unable to deal with something very exceptional in his state of depression. Only the most wonderful thing is like music for the deaf. The greatest is like a rain of blind stars. Do not raise your heart or your eyes to the heights, because to do it, it only reminds you that you are yourself in the depths. Even if, like the psalmist, you incline to cry “oh lord”, it is a cry like Jonah of the belly of a whale.

Depression in all forms feels like an absolute chaos of the mind and the duration of the soul, which only prayer to gather is a “oh, weak, help me.” Buechner concludes his reflections on depression and the possibility of hope despite this with this breath: “Hope in the Father who is the mother, the lady who is the Lord. Do not lift her eyes too high, but throw them out to that sacred place inside you where you are fed and quiet, to that most internal giver where you are yourself the child.”

A hopeful clock

Internal agitation and spiritual chaos find a way of flowing and flowing, and Lady Gagas Violence It is no stranger to this rhythm. Violence He sings as a challenge to face the dark nights of the soul with boldness and courage, not only with dance, but with the hope that God will see us. Which will calm our souls and take us to calm waters (Psalm 23). God, in his mysterious roads and time, is making a path through chaos, and with him, darkness never has the advantage; We just need to wait for him and the light will come more. To quote Julian or Norwich, “everyone will be fine, and everything will be fine, and all kinds of things will be fine.”

Violence Most likely, it is my best album this year in Spotify, and not only for its catchy and unique sensation. It also serves as a powerful reminder to dance through my own chaos of mental fear, and dance until dawn breaks with a clock with hope of what is to come.