"I Already See It" by Kye Kye, Tuesday, November 14, 2023 (repost)

Kye Kye released two albums in the early 2010s. My earliest memory with this indie-electronic band was their single "Broke" on RadioU, which took a while to grow on their listenership, failing to beat the other singles of the week on their "Battle of the Buzz" program. However, when the single was finally released to regular rotation, it quickly topped their "TMW" (Ten Most Wanted) program. That summer, I saw the band perform at Cornerstone in the Come & Live tent before or after Showbread. Lead singer, Olga Yagolnikov Phelan, seemed a little shy when talking to the audience, but the band sounded great when performing. The band's strength lies in their atmospheric sound rather than their spiritually cryptic lyrics. 

TAKE YOUR TIME; I ALREADY SEE IT. One Saturday night in college some of my friends and I were invited to one of our professor’s homes. That night the professor taught us a game involving classic issues of National Geographic and a roll of Christmas wrapping paper. This game you had to learn by observation and once you learn the rules, you demonstrate but never say the rules out loud. I watched as my friends started catching on little by little, some catching on quickly, while others were just as frustrated as me. I was the very last one to figure out the game, so my frustration must have given so much joy to everyone in the know. The story of that Saturday night has come to be a metaphor for my old ways of thinking. I used to think that I had the world figured out. I had made some connections when looking at the enigma of classic National Geographic magazines lying on the floor. My religion had helped me interpret the Bible correctly and there was a long history of literature, philosophy, and culture that was just reacting to false religions. If only we could put the parts together. If only we could put aside the human problem with religion, we could solve the puzzle and be at one with the divine.

IT DOESN'T COME AT ONCE. I grew up with the teaching of progressive revelation. This is a Christian idea in many denominations and a central doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist church that teaches that God doesn't reveal truth all at once. For Adventists, this explains a clean lineage from Martin Luther to the teachings of Ellen White, collecting only the legalistic aspects of John Calvin. Other churches use progressive revelation to excuse the church's historical defense of slavery. However, as we are now living in a time of rapid changes in beliefs about wealth inequality, race, gender, and sexuality, the Church continues to be a bulwark behind what those in power hide. Rather than saying that revelation and truth is progressive, the church should rather say, those with white hair will soon be dead. The ones whom the older bigots haven't run away will have slightly more progressive ideas as times and circumstances allow and will come to power as their hair is turning white. And over time, the church can pretend its atrocities never even happened because the old guard has died off. The most shocking example is the Adventist church in Nazi Germany siding with Hitler. History is carefully forgotten. The organized Church, no matter how you put the pieces together comes up with the same results. And while times seem chaotic, I keep coming back to what I think the central message of this song is: "Love is accepted." Despite whatever the wrongs "the haters" do, love is about accepting someone no matter what journey they go on. Love is not about subjecting others to your wills. It's about the journey together. 

Read “I Already See It” by Kye Kye on Genius.