Here there is not a Greek and Jew, circumsised and uncircumcised. barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all – Colossians 3:11
Colossae, you ask? Well, it was a small Phygian city, near Laodicea about 100 miles from Ephesus in Asia Minor. Or today’s Turkey.
And I dare say the Colossians were being encouraged to embrace the new religious cult that was Christianity.
Just like the Buddhists, Muslims, Sikhs, Rastafarians et al did too as they spread their word around the world and sought to convert the uninitiated.
Maybe though religion isn’t your religion and you’re more into your music, whichever strand of the modern music that is which originated from Africa.
Mine’s would be the steel bands, or Soca music of Barbados www.visitbarbados.org, Let’s rumba in Barbados, My kiss with Rihanna and Tobago https://www.visittobago.gov.tt and https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/03/17/ready-steady-goat-racing-in-tobago/amp/.
And rock’n’roll which took hold in the Deep South of the USA https://www.deep-south-usa.com, The story of the Blues and The King of Kings.
I prefaced all this American Trilogy odyssey by walking in the footsteps of Dr Martin Luther King The Promised Land.
And while we will forever associate Dr King with his speeches and leadership of the Civil Rights Movement he was a product of his culture.
And one of his favourite songs was Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.
Which the Woke Generation want English rugby to ban because they believe it is cultural appropriation.
But don’t we all take bits from each other’s culture and isn’t it how you view it?
I see it as cultural celebration, not cultural appropriation.
There are a million examples between the cultures, colours, religions, sexes, nations.
But I will reference here the Oscar-winning movie Green Book where the protagonists went on a physical and spiritual journey together.
And we were reminded that we don’t and never should fit into boxes.
And that black people can, and do, love European classical music and that there is no cultural appropriation here.
As the urbane and gay pianist Dr Don Shirley said to his machismo Italian-Americans driver Frank ‘Tony Lip’ Vallelonga in this exchange.
Tony Lip: You don’t know shit about your own people, what they eat, how they talk, how they live. You don’t even know who Little Richard is.
Dr Don Shirley: Oh, so knowing who Little Richard is makes you blacker than me?
And the life lesson and moral of the story: Dr Don and Tony Lip became lifelong friends.
As they embraced a human bond, and did not allow a cultural barrier to be put up between them.
VIVE LA DIFFERENCE
