Not all divided family relationships will reconcile. In the new concept video for my song Adriane Elaine, actress Kendall Cavender portrays a difficult side of the story. I tell people that the main message of this song is "Return to Love and reconcile divided family relationships ... because what divides a family divides a nation." We all know the ugly truth though. Not every family member who does their part to run the "recipe of reconciliation" will be met by other family members to close that circle. The recipe is simple and has only four ingredients: 1. Own your divisive behavior. 2. Apologize for it. 3. Make a commitment to change the behavior going forward, and 4. Take time to rebuild trust. As we all know though, not everyone willing to do that will be met by the other family member or members willing to do the same. This is a sad and lonely discovery for some and tragically it happens all the time.
In my last blog "A Psalm from France" within my pity party, I am lamenting in the feelings of "to no avail" that plague me at times. When I face this reality in my own life as well as witness it in the lives of so many others around me, I can get a bit overwhelmed. Why is it so hard to simply reconcile these things for some people? Pride gets in our way and steals the path to forgiveness which leads the way to mending the divisions among us - on a family level and on a national level. When my video director, Michael Merriman delivered the first cut of this concept video, I really wrestled with it. I realized that with this project I only want to share the encouraging positive side where people do reconcile and reunite and rise up together to do great things in America. As I wrestled, I realized that was short sighted, and I would miss an opportunity to encourage those lone rangers who attempt to reconcile to no avail.
In another song from this album called Coffee, the lyric says "He taught me there that it's really not that hard to let the other man win. Just say, 'I own this, and I'm sorry, and I won't ever walk this way again.' Say, 'Let's start over, and let me show you that I really can be trusted like a friend." Even when you let go, and "let the other man win" by doing your part to attempt to reconcile to no avail, you actually walk away the winner. According to my own personal interpretation of the Adriane Elaine concept video, I believe Kendall perfectly portrayed this victory. After wrestling with this video, I finally realized that Michael Merriman had directed Kendall to perfectly paint the picture of all of the many emotions one goes through in the process of attempting reconciliation to no avail - the other side of the story. Thank you Michael. This was important.
See the video here and let me know your personal interpretation.
