Whitney Houston - complexity of black and white

Dear Christian brothers and sisters. First let me explain the choice of my title. In my opinion it simply describes her supposed personality and her stormy life. About her being a complexity of black and white - her father was a white American while her mother Cissy was African American and she was critized for "not being black enough". Also looking back at her life, she had her black (dark) and white (light) sides also from spiritual ankle: She began as an innocent young woman from a gospel choir and though she was claimed to be God-fearing until the last day of her life, she was infamously taken by drug addiction and alcoholism.
I also think that for once it would be refreshing to concentrate only on her music, to enjoy it and write about it, because media is currently full of enough negative stories and rumours about her and we should also try to see the goodness in her which indeed is her music. I also think that we should wait until her mother Cissy Houston will pen and publish an appropriate biography about her daughter telling no more or less than the truth and this has been confirmed to happen. Cissy Houston is being quoted by the New York Times as saying:" I want to stop the lies, it's going to be the bad. It's going to be the good." So this time I'll entirely leave her personal life and even details of her career ignored and just offer you a review of The Preacher's Wife (1996) soundtrack, her most famous gospel album and the highest-selling one in the world.

Before I continue I have a message to my readers: I haven't been around my blog for long time but now I've found lots of inspiration and reasons to keep this up. Also since that I haven't been around for so long time I've missed some comments on my views that have been mostly positive and I appreciate it, but today I also came to realize that there have been some misunderstandings and negative response that I'd like to correct. Please do read some of my previous, older blog posts placed under label "tolerance" so you realize that I'm not here to judge and being narrow-minded. The ones that I've written yet are mainly about cultural and racial tolerance but now there seems to be a necessity to me to express my tolerance more clearly towards different worldviews and religions.
To begin with, my boyfriend has no religion and neither has one of my best friends and I respect it. Christianity is about tolerance and forgiveness as I've expressed before. After all we can't know for sure whether the Jewish, the Christians or Muslims or atheists are right. These worldviews are just our opinions and choices that feel good for us. We shouldn't go to faith wars or other judgements because it doesn't change anything, it's useless. Let's allow happiness for each other. Also, if you read my very first blog post you'll see that I've actually been an atheist for the most of my current life and received Jesus only in 2007 so I do understand also non-believers, I do remember my past :).
Also now that I'm writing about someone as complex as Whitney I truly want to avoid misunderstandings! Yes, the Bible obviously judges drugs and alcoholism but it isn't mortal people's business to judge Whitney, there's no use for that, human is powerless over universe's might. Only God can do that whether He chooses, but Christianity is a religion of forgiveness and I frankly believe that Whitney might be forgiven as well as she likely had faith. After all in Whitney it's only music that should matter for us and we should enjoy it and leave the speculation over her personal life. I'm also glad to admit that though I'm a believer myself I'm far from perfect and I truly am a sinner . I'm sober but from Christianity's ankle I've commited sin in other ways and I should watch my tongue :). Jealousy is my second biggest sin but I'm working so hard on my weaknesses and dreams to overcome this sin in order to be happy with myself. I hope that my long explanation satisfies the ones who had wrong perceptions.
I will be also very surprised if after this post I get any hate-mail because in my opinion I even talk(ed) beautifully and respectfully about Houstons and if I manage to attract any new readers, they should check out some of my very first blog posts because I've clearly said that I see spreading tolerance as one of the missions of this blog. I'm also a member of the Red Cross movement so judgement is out of my values. There's got to be moral in order to the world to stay in order, but Christian moral is moral of humanity. Also if we find something against our moral and values instead of judging we should look into our own imperfection and most importantly make sure that we won't do the same acts that we're judging about. Let others do whatever they want as long as it's not against the law (and now I'm talking about mortal people's laws written by governments). Does this make any sense to you? I hope that after this I can talk freely in my next posts without any need of explaining my views anymore. Just don't make any hasty conclusions anymore, please! I'd like to concentrate on my subjects free from any need to convince anyone because this wasn't the original idea behind my blog: The original idea was just to express myself and talk about everything that I like, that's all. To soften a little, constructive criticism is of course welcome regarding my writing but if there will be any more judgement which is a whole different thing, I'll delete the opportunity to comment because I really don't want to correct anybody's hasty conclusions anymore. It takes so much space from my actual issues and I really want to keep the handling of my issues as high quality as until now. The quality of my work mustn't decrease.     

The Preacher's Wife Original Soundtrack Album (1996)

Also now that I'm moving on to my actual subject, the review, there's one more misunderstanding that I'd like to correct and that I found from the comments. I have never said in any way in any of my few album reviews until now that spiritual or gospel music would be made by God or come straight from God. No, NO, no. Gospel and spiritual music is made by mortal very talented people who just express their views and experiences on God and spirituality through their creative work and those views could be as well wrong or right.Also when I say that I can relate to the message that an artist wants to forward and I say that I find comfort in it, those artists just by chance have similar experiences and views as I have. As you can see, here I am explaining this with the same principle as I did on the worldviews above. Nobody knows the secret behind universe and the answer behind life and being. It feels really stupid and hilarious that I even have to correct someone on this subject. One of my best friends is an atheist as I said and she checks this blog out sometimes but she has never said anything this hilarious about me that I'd interpret faith in this extreme, crazy way. I don't even think that it has ever crossed her mind that I'd think in this way.
For secular readers who maybe by accident stop by this blog, I can also tell that my taste of music and movies is a lot wider than my blog lets you understand. To be honest, my mp3 contains currently more secular music than gospel so I don't differ from you as much as you might think. Actually, you can find a blog post from here from the year 2010 telling about Shakira whose hips a strict believer would find satanic, but I have more her albums than anybody else's. I also admire Ziggy Marley and many other mainstream or secular artists though I'm currently mostly into soul and R&B (I even read Rolling Stone!). 
You have to realize that I decided to establish a spiritual blog so I only publish here posts that suit to that concept but my own personality is a lot wider than this concept. So you see here just a part of me. There are many kind of Christians, many differents churches and lifestyles but you'll see that mine is one of the most laid-back ones. I also have to remind any new reader or any atheist stopping by that I see mainly Christians, especially Christian women as the target group of my blog, but as you can see from the list of my followers, there are also men reading this and possibly someone representing Jews and Muslims as well.  I'm very glad about the variety of members coming from different backgrounds because it shows that I've succeeded in my mission in some level but the same time my blog hasn't been meant to attract atheists in any way, at least not if the purpose of stopping by here is judgement.   

I feel like taking a deep breath after all this explaining, it feels so vain... Now I'll finally move on to music. Whitney recorded and co-produced with Mervyn Warren this album including six gospel songs with Georgia Mass Choir that were recorded at the Great Star Rising Baptist Church in Atlanta. One of these sings songs was "I Love The Lord" that begins with sweet, rather silent piano notes and Whitney begins with silent, melismatic notes, little by little lifting her smooth voice, casting some high runs, continuing with melismatic low notes until the high notes return along with the orchestra and Georgia Mass Choir joining in. The whole arrangement is really smooth and peaceful. The song ends with strings and orchestra section with a typical impression of soundtrack music.

So Whitney sang in this album also few songs without Georgia Mass Choir or any other collaboration joining in but I rather wouldn't comment on each song of this album because the songs after all sound pretty similar together and to my ears this is strongly a ballad album filled with quite many slow songs that actually make the whole entity pretty lame and boring but it doesn't mean that this album would be entirely worse or that I wouldn't appreciate "The Voice". Even the ones recorded with Georgia Mass Choir sound pretty similar and the main sound of this album is really soft and you maybe even could fall asleep with it. The collaborations with other artists spice up this album giving it at times those few welcome upbeat songs that may appeal more to younger listeners. Those few upbeat songs whether with or without collaborations barely manage to save the spirit of the album from not being as boring as it could be.
"My Heart Is Calling" is a smooth R&B ballad sung by Whitney by herself and it's one of my favourites with soft, sleepy, humming background vocals. This is one of the slow songs but I'd name this anyway as one of the refreshing pieces that may appeal to younger listeners of my age as well. I think the song may sound even a little bit retro, a little bit 80s but it's very comfortable.

Whitney duetted in the album also with Shirley Caesar in the song "He's All Over Me". This album became the highest selling gospel album in the world by selling six million copies worldwide. Its two singles were "I Believe In You And Me" and "Step By Step" which was originally written by Annie Lennox."Step by Step" is an uplifting, upbeat song which begins with introduction that I'd describe as eternal, giving me an imagination of heaven or light blue summer sky. The song is a disco beat in my opinion giving you courage to believe in your dreams and keep fighting for them though there might be tribulations in the way. A very sunny and positive song, one of the most dear ones for me in the album. "I Believe In You And Me" was a luxurious ballad with full of hope and tender feelings towards your sweetheart. The trumpet brings the luxurious spirit to the song that I mentioned. Whitney sings some parts of it a cappella and her voice is simply amazing in the top moment of the song, "I believe in miracles.../".

Her mother Cissy Houston who has been known as a gospel singer had also her star moment in the album as she joined Hezekiah Walker And The Love Fellowship Crusade Choir in the song "The Lord Is My Shepherd". When I hear this song beginning it feels to me like a traditional hymn and I'm really not a hymn person but prefer more contemporary takes on gospel music. It begins with the choir singing silently and then Cissy Houston continues with her voice that at first seems to bear resemblance to that of Whitney's but then I'd actually compare it to Mahalia Jackson's. But when I listen to the song further it makes me take all my previous words back and I see it as a deeper, more mature version of Whitney's, her casting rather high notes. And actually when I listened to the song further and further, the sound world reminds in some funny way about The Sound Of Music. This song is my least favourites in the album because of too many high voices at once.

I think the smoothest, most R&B oriented song in the album is the massive collaboration "Somebody Bigger Than You And I" with Bobby Brown, Faith Evans, Monica, Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant. It begins with Bobby Brown rapping and continues with Whitney's beautiful, expressive, bright, at times high vocals. Then Bobby Brown continues singing with his voice that obviously divides opinions. In my opinion his voice is pretty good and soulful, a pretty usual sounding male voice in soul music, but I'd describe it also chaste, rough and maybe even breaking or broken... Well, drugs obviously influenced his voice as well but this is my one last comment that I grant for Bobby Brown. I honestly don't know if it's Johnny Gill or Ralph Tresvant that continues after Brown's sung part but I have to say the difference is huge: Would it be Tresvant or Gill, he's able to sing some really high notes though he has this low baritone of a male gospel singer. Soon after that Faith Evans continues with her unique, colourful vocals... shade of her voices is changing constantly. Then Monica continues the rest of the verse with her velvety, high vocals as I like to describe them. Her voice is also deep and in my opinion it has clearly darker shade than in Whitney's voice, there's a clear contrast which is obvious. Then once again there's a male voice and I can only guess whether it's Tresvant or Gill as I don't know their music (I'd be glad to hear in the comments below who is who)... In my opinion his voice sounds rather feminine in the end of the verse and otherwise I'd describe it maybe a little bit nasal and bouncy. His voice is really interesting because I can hear also roughness in his runs. Then the cycle of voices starts spinning around and I find it useless describing the voices of the collaborators again as I already did. Anyway, the female voices including Whitney sing the backing vocals through the song. The lyrics of this song make me see this as more or less a children's song. "Who Would Imagine A King" featuring The Nativity Choir is clearly a children's ballad and Whitney sang it to children in the movie's scene.

GRADE: 7, 5 out of 10 because this album is after all good and it has obvious historical value but always when reviewing some piece of work we have to try to see its position among other ones with similar concept and now I have to say that regardless the acclaim and mostly positive feedback this album has received, it doesn't manage to bring out very much new approach or unique ideas for gospel music. The concept of this album seems to be somewhere between Mary Mary's Thankful and Aretha Franklin's One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism so it brings out only things that we've already seen. Also, though Whitney co-produced this album that's not enough creative control over her work from my ankle to grand her an 8 or 9.          

Individual and cultural fasting

Now that we're having the second day of muslims annual fasting month Ramadan, I decided to dedicate one post for the subject as fasting is touching Christians as well. And because my fiancé comes from Islamic culture I'd like to highlight Ramadan especially today to respect him and his friends. Anyway, fasting was set to Christianity for 40 days before Easter in 300 AC and before that we used to do it also on Wednesdays and Fridays. We Protestants do it seldom anyway, but Roman Catholics and Orthodox still practice it. In Orthodox Church fasting means avoiding certain food ingredients and avoiding to hurt others by words and deeds. It also means separating from those ways and manners that separate human from God. They do it for spiritual growing and achieving similarity to God. They fast also when preparing themselves for a great churchy celebration. In Catholic Church fasting means days when according to church they must decrease their daily eating for one full meal and to two small ones as a separation from abstinence which means refusal from eating meat especially on Fridays before Easter. Because the reformation of Luther criticized fasting as an outer action that can't cause salvation we Protestants don't do it often, at least not for religious reasons. In Judaism they fast in seven days of Jewish calendar and five of them are so called "smaller fasting days". The holiest day of Judaism is jom kippur and it's the second of those most important fasting days. In Buddhism there's no actual fasting but in the monasteries of some schools they eat only one meal a day and after noon they don't eat anything. In the greatest days of celebration laymen following these trends don't eat after noon. They want to set the all afternoon free for practising religion. In Hinduism they practice religious fasting in ekadasi which is the 11th day of every Moon's half section. In strictly followed fasting time they don't eat or drink and it begins from the sunset of previous day until the sunrise of the next day.

Ramadan

Ramadan is the 9th month of Islamic hijra calendar. Its most important event is religious fasting, saum , during which healthy adult muslims eat only in the dark daytime. Even drinking, smoking and sexual interaction is forbidden at light time. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the 5 pillars of Islam so it's one of the most important ways of practicing religion. When fasting muslims gets closer to God by giving up things they enjoy. This brings out their stable devotion to God. Believers know that God loves them when they're ready to give in earthly pleasures for God. Fasting is also more than refusal of food and drink: it also means giving up falsic words and deeds, inappropriate talk, arguing and fighting. So fasting helps to improve good behavior. Fasting teaches also feelings of brotherhood and solidarity when muslim experience how does it feels like being in lack and hunger as his brother. During Ramadan muslims usually work only in forenoon. After the end of fasting they'll celebrate Id al-Fitr feast which takes place in the next sawwal month's 3 first days. During the celebration they may hand gifts for friends and relatives, visit friends, buy a new dress and eat good food. Because Islamic calendar isn't a clear moon calendar Ramadan doesn't take place every time in the same season but in 30 years it will circle around all the seasons. This year Ramadan started in the August 11th and will end at September 9th.

Health causes of fast

The medical pros and cons of fasting aren't well-known but it's said to have beneficial influence on intestines' action. For example in Europe and USA we fast for health reasons more than spiritual ones as we want to stay in good fit and control overweight. But for remaining results you should have permanently healthier and lighter diet. Even before important medical operation you have to fast, because it effects crucially in the results. So what happens in our bodies during fasting? The body uses first as its sources of energy glycogen storage of muscles and liver and fat. If fast is a longer-term one body begins first to produce ketone compounds from fat for nervous system and begins to disperse muscles' protein for a source of energy. Fasts held for healthy reasons are usually water, juice or soup fasts. Water fast is the worst possible option from health's point of view, because body bears it healthy just few days. Otherwise from juice and soup fasts body gets anyway some sugars and other nutrients too to survive. Fast isn't recommended for old people, expecting mothers and small children.

Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

"Now when the queen of Sheba had heard of the fame of Solomon she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions, having a very great retinue and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from Solomon which he could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, and their clothing, his cupbearers, and their clothing, and his burnt offerings which he offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, "The report was true which I heard in my own land of your affairs and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it; and behold, half the greatness of your wisdom was not told me; you surpass the report which I heard. Happy are your wives! Happy are these your servants, who continually stand before you and your wisdom! Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on his throne as king for the LORD your God! Because your God loved Israel and would establish them for ever, he has made you king over them, that you may execute justice and righteousness." Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices, and precious stones: there were no spices such as those which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. ... And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what she had brought to the king. So she turned and went back to her own land, with her servants." (2 Chronicles 9)

"(the supposed queen of Sheba:)Oh, that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth! For your love is better than wine, your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is oil poured out; therefore the maidens love you. Draw me after you, let us make haste. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you. I am very dark, but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. Do not gaze at me because I am swarthy, because the sun has scorched me. My mother's sons were angry with me, they made me keeper of the vineyards; but, my own vineyard I have not kept! Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who wanders beside the flocks of your companions?

"(the supposed Solomon:)If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your kids beside the shepherds' tents. I compare you, my love, to a mare of Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are comely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels. We will make you ornaments of gold, studded with silver.

"(the supposed Queen of Sheba): While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh, that lies between my breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Enge'di"

"(the supposed Solomon): Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves. Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. Our couch is green, the beams of our house are cedar, our rafters are pine." (Song of Solomon 1)

Today I'll still continue with the same theme I wrote last time about: love. Yes, the deepest and most important message of Christianity is love. And I've said the Bible is full of great examples of love, especially the New Testament, but to my mind the most wonderful example from the Old Testament is the story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Everybody knows the story. So why do I want to share it in my diary once again? Because it's especially touching me on this day and I believe it can also teach our modern hearts. This story is also one of my favourites from the Bible. The Bible doesn't tell clearly that Solomon and Queen of Sheba had been married or even lovers, but I bet Song of Solomon 1 proves they really were. Today we're living in multicultural Europe immigration and refugees being the key words. We can't avoid contact between different races and cultures and I absolutely recommend it for forgetting the prejudice and opening our hearts for tolerance. There are more and more mixed couples in Europe and this has been usual in the USA already for decades: one child may have various genes from different backgrounds; Latin, African, American, Irish, Scottish etc. Even Solomon and Queen of Sheba were a multicultural couple one being Ethiopian and another being Arabic. They probably had a child together, named David after Solomon's father. Because of the pressure of Solomon's government and counsellors the Queen had to return to Ethiopia with their baby and Solomon's best priests, soldiers, gold and everything she desired. The government couldn't accept the Queen's religion but after they were made to divorce she brought Judaism with her to Ethiopia and was believed to be converted herself as well. The way they divorced proves their huge amount of love and the unfortunate fact that has become more like a rule than exception in modern Europe: however much the parties of different races and cultures may love each other, they're probably separated by religion or by pressure of their families; in modern Europe this happens to Christians and Muslims. Solomon had 100 wives with at least 100 religions and the government and Solomon's priests couldn't accept any of them. Solomon loved the Queen more than any of these wives and he was willing to make her the Queen of Israel. Their love was amazingly wonderful and beautiful, because they loved so passionately and truly and they were 100 % equal even though they were of different colour: the Queen had as much wealth and authority as Solomon had and the Queen wanted to have something from Solomon's culture: their equality and tolerance were the things that my readers could learn from on this day. Jesus loves the immigrants too, I'm absolutely convinced about that. I find a lot of anti-racism message in the teachings of Jesus and in Paul's interpretation of them.