Your True Colors

Cyndi Lauper has always been one of my favorite musical artists.  She co-wrote and performed some beautiful music, including Time After Time, which includes a lot of metaphorical lyrics that I find interesting.

One of the things I like best about her, along with her music, is that she always made a point of letting her Freak Flag fly; in fact, the name of her 1983 debut album was She's So Unusual.  She definitely lived up to that description in her dress, hair styles, the way she danced, just everything about her.   I used to think it was probably mostly a gimmick designed to set her apart from the hundreds other would-be pop stars of the 1980s. I don't believe that any more.

The reason for my change in attitude about Cyndi's odd-ball persona, is because I have really listened to and thought about another of her songs, True Colors.  In this song, Cyndi is talking to someone she loves who is feeling sad.  She attributes her friend's feelings to a "world full of people" that make him lose sight of himself, causing the darkness inside of him to grow and make him feel small.   The chorus of the song is the advice she offers him:

"But I see your true colors

Shining through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow"

She tells him that she can see the real him underneath the darkness, and his "true colors" are the reason she loves him.  Think about that.  She knows who he really is  -- not the person he might think he should be, or the person the world expects him to be, but the real him.  And she tells him not to be afraid to be who he really is, that that person is beautiful.  In the video linked above, she is living out the advice she gives in the ultra-strange ways she dresses,  the way she moves, and the way she wears her hair.  Parts of the video include settings that look like they might be out of a Dr Seuss picture-book.   It's as if she's saying to everyone, "Look at me.  I'm unusual, but I'm OK with it.  If I can look and act the way I do, what's to stop you from being who you really are?"

There are a lot of reasons that this advice might be hard for people to follow.  The "world full of people" that Cyndi's song refers puts all kinds of expectations on each of us.  As children, we are taught how we "should" be according to our gender, our socio-economic status, our race, ethnic background,  and a thousand other things.  Parents, schools, and churches impress on us their desires and expectations for who we should be and how we should act.  Advertisers make sure we are fully aware of the ways we fall short in appearance and physique.  It is easy to be inclined to try to hide, or even to deny our "true colors,"  the people we really are.  Letting those true colors show can be frightening and make us feel vulnerable.

Recently I have been reading Being Jesus in Nashville, the controversial new book by author Jim Palmer, who also wrote Divine Nobodies and Wide Open Spaces.  In his new book, Jim continues his journey of shedding religion to find Jesus,  He challenges himself to live a year exploring what it means "be Jesus" in his hometown of Nashville.  In other words, Jim seeks to interact with the people he encounters the way Jesus would have.  Pretty radical stuff.

One of the chapters of this book is titled "Being Jesus Means...Seeing People As They Truly Are."  In this chapter, he tells of his developing friendship with a homeless woman named Pattie he meets outside Panera Bread.  Their friendship grows, and eventually Pattie tells him, "Jim, I don't know if you will understand this, but when we are together I don't feel like a 'homeless person.'  I just feel like Pattie -- and that makes all the difference."

Jim relates his experience with Pattie to Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well.  Jesus interacts with the woman just as the individual she is, not as a Samaritan, or a woman, or a sinner. He sees all those things about her, her true colors, but he doesn't hold back from their encounter.  He offers her "living water."  He sees her as she is, and he loves her anyway.  I believe that, as Cyndi Lauper says to her friend in her song, Jesus loves the woman at the well because she is the the exact individual that she is.  He didn't ask her to clean up her act first; he didn't weigh her down with heavy obligations.  He told her that  "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth."

"In truth."  I believe that means we must seek the truth about God, but it also means we must seek and embrace the truth about ourselves.  He already knows who we are, and he us loves anyway.  He loves us because of who we are.  If we can be real with God, if Jesus really knows us, then why should we be afraid to be who we are?  Why shouldn't we let our true colors come shining through?

"One of the greatest moments in anybody's developing experience is when he no longer tries to hide from himself but determines to get acquainted with himself as he really is."  —Norman Vincent Peale