Everybody Goes Someday with JOSHUA DAVIS!
Performing songwriter, teaching artist and finalist on NBC's The Voice - Joshua Davis (joshuadavismusic.com) joins us to reflect on his song "Everybody Goes Someday" from the album A Miracle Of Birds.
Discussion Guide
In this episode we talk about death, All Saints Day, and the biblical witness encouraging us to live everyday as if God’s full goodness is present now - not just after you die. We invite you to use the discussion questions below while listening to this song for you own exploration of how we are to live like heaven is here now.
Everybody Goes Someday
Joshua Davis
Carrion Crow,
picking up the pieces on the highway,
Everybody goes someday
Death is just a part of life. Sometimes it can be difficult to accept that. In Joshua Davis’ jaunty melody, he seems to put death in its place, recognizing it, but refusing to give it the anxiety and dread for which death too often asks. When have moments of death and loss in your life maintained within them some sense of beauty or comfort, no matter how complicated?
Honey pie, when I die,
maybe they'll give me just one more try
Will I come back? Baby I don't know
"maybe I'll return as a carrion crow”,
On All Saints Day we remember those who have died in the previous year and the witness and impact they’ve made in the world. If anyone deserves one more try, perhaps it's these saints that we celebrate. Who are the lost saints in your life that you think should have one more chance at making the world a better place?
angels sing – Angels sing
behind the curtain at the cabaret
Everybody goes someday.
Honey pie, when I die, I hope to go gentle like a kiss goodbye
What's up next? Who's waiting in the wings?
Maybe I can listen to the angels sing,
From poets to authors to filmmakers we like our visions of the afterlife to have some spectacle about them. The “behind the curtain” language in Joshua Davis’ song reminds us that nobody really has any clue what happens once we die. So why not do our own imagining? What spectacles do you imagine in the after-death after our gentle kisses goodbye?
"paradise waits” – Paradise waits
& puts all God's children on layaway
Everybody goes someday.
In the context of the album, this is a song addressing the shared experience of death among even those caught in generational violence with one another. How does this perspective - that “all God’s children” get put on layaway equally - help you navigate conflict in your own part of the world?
honey pie, when I die, will I have to wait a while to give it a try?
In the lobby, gazing at the garden gates
The company ‘s fine but paradise waits,
dirt in the ground-
Dirt in the ground, laying ‘round
pushing up the daisies,
Everybody goes someday.
Honey pie, when I die,
I hope to go quiet like the evening sky
Is it all over, with the sight and the sound?
Maybe we're all just dirt in the ground, carrion crow