Let me explain...
This is the story album about my family that I wrote, produced, and finally released. The heart behind this project can be summed up by the statements and story below.
Ingredients
Ingredient 1. "What divides a family divides a nation."
An understanding of our society.
Ingredient 2.
"Return to Love." It is time to return to God. (1 John 4:8)
Ingredient 3.
"Reconcile our Relationships" We need each other!
Ingredient 4.
"We all have roots in Common Ground." Walk in love and mutual respect.
The Story
When I started this project, I had no idea what I was getting myself into! If I had, I would have turned and run for my life! When I began writing the songs, I thought this was going to be all about the story of how my great-grandparents raised ten children out on the plains of Texas and miraculously made it through both The Great Depression and The Dirty Thirties. It's a cool story, and it was going to be such an honor to share with people in this creative way.
Don't get me wrong, I fully knew that there was a glaring family division and that would have to be part of the story, but this was nowhere near my initial focus. I wanted to focus on the countless hysterical and fun stories of this fascinating family. I think I assumed I would tactfully gloss over that part and chalk it up to the same old issues every family has. As the songs kept coming, this focal point continued to become more and more prevalent, whether I liked it or not.
Before I knew it, I had twelve songs that told the story of this family division, and hopefully, how to reconcile it. Again, this was not what I was originally shooting for. Once the project was released and had gained a little momentum, I was asked by podcasters and interviewers how my family felt about this project. My answer was always honest. "I'm not always sure. There's been lots of loud silence about it, and there's been lots of private support. I did my best to honor every side of the story, and that was the only way I knew how to handle it."
My family has a rich history of deep-rooted unforgiveness, bitterness, and resentment, as does the majority of families I know. I didn't set out for this project to be "a preach." It took forever to get the project to a point of release, and when it was almost ready, it was 2020. This would be the year that sparked the biggest and maybe the most destructive division in American history.
How could I have known this was coming when I started this project? How could I have foreseen what seemed to be God's timing for its release? Much of the next few years were spent in prayer and meditation, trying to understand exactly what God was calling me to do with this project. That is where many of the statements above were developed.