If you have to ask what Frank, stop reading right now. Anyone who lived in the 20th century, and raised their kids well in the 21st, should know that could only be the incomparable Sinatra, the Chairman of the Board. The other night my wife told some little intimate cylinder with the name Alexa to play big band Frank Sinatra, and on came the wonderful song Come Fly With Me, and the phrase of the title of this post came instantly to my mind. There is nothing as awesome as Big Band Frank. One song after the other came on, and each so incredibly captured the vibrant vitality of life through The Voice. Even though Frank in the 40s made his name as a crooner, his legacy lives on more as the voice of the Great American Songbook with big bands led by the likes of the great Nelson Riddle. It’s difficult to express in mere words how his voice accompanied by the amazing arrangements of so many songs capture how wonderful and vibrant this life can be. When you’re listening you can almost feel like it is possible that what we’re ultimately looking for can actually be found in this life. As any honest person will tell you, it can’t, not least because the Grim Reaper is always waiting in the wings to spoil the party.
Speaking of seductively secular, we tend to forget that what we know as “The 60s” didn’t happen in an historical or cultural vacuum. The cultural vision of a thoroughly secular life, where finding our ultimate fulfillment in what this life can offer, was well under way before that turbulent decade, and Frank and his buddies in the Rat Pack led the way. Elvis did that for the next generation, then of course The Beatles blew up the scene, and before you know it the next life, the one that comes after our demise, became passe. Madison Avenue, and the Mad Men who ran it, built an empire of advertising that sold us on the almost never ending quest for our best life now.
In my book I discuss the concept of plausibility structures, or those ideas in culture that create meaning, and which are terribly hard to escape. What seems real to us is determined by those structures, and nothing seems as real to us in our secular time as that this life is it. All meaning, hope, and purpose is here and now, this side of the grave, and if you don’t get it now, your life is meaning-less. If you listen to Frank uncritically, you might just be seduced into thinking that’s true. Is is not! This is not to say that those feelings and aspirations are bad in and of themselves because this life God gave us is awesome, and he gave it all to us to enjoy and experience, but only because it ultimately points to him and to forever. It’s easy listening to Frank to forget that.
One of the best things we can teach our children is that everything in life will eventually disappoint us because nothing but God can carry the freight of ultimate fulfillment. As they were growing up I often used a version of the line from The Princess Bride where Westley tells Buttercup, “Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” My version is, Life is disappointment, highness. We might tend to see this as a negative thing to emphasize to our children, but it could not be more positive. It teaches them that seeking any kind of ultimate fulfillment in this life is a fool’s errand, and will only make the disappointments of this life that much more disappointing. Most importantly, it teaches them, and reminds us, that all good gifts come from above, and can be enjoyed with gratitude to the dispenser of all gifts, including Frank.
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