When it Hits, You Feel No Pain

Eberhard Hitzler from Lutheran World Federation, writing in this blog, comments on his own experience of seeing the socio-economic gap in Colombia. It stuns. It’s so mentally irreconcilable that it leaves any conscientious visitor to this country with the feeling of being “in a different universe and not in the same country.”

I can say one thing about Cartagena, this poorest section of the nation near the Caribbean—the majority of whose residents are African-descended—the dancing and music doesn’t seem to stop. From the ancient beats of Palenque drummers who embrace life’s transitions with apt licks on various drums, to the ever-ubiquitous salsa, with its thrilling horns and thumping beats. There’s a disco right beside my hotel room. From it, Spanish cheers and syncopated bass lines literally rattled my window till 4 AM. They may have the nation’s highest misery index, but thank God for the gift of rhythm to help sufferers to work and dance as they climb to a better livelihood. Thirty-plus years ago, Bob Marley’s anthem about the rawness of West Kingston intoned: “One good thing about music, when it hits, you feel no pain.”

Tomorrow I’ll write about some of the symphonic solutions Lutheran World Relief partners are composing and conducting to ease the pain. These, too, have been like sweet music to my ears for the past two days.