And a Pulitzer Prize goes to...Bob Dylan?

Yes. It's true--Bob Dylan was given a Pulitzer Prize last week. Upon learning of this honor given to the folk singer from my home state of Minnesota I definitely agree with the decision and think he is very deserving of such an award. Dylan won a Special Citation, which according to the Pulitzer Prize web site, was given to him based on "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." This couldn't be more true. I had barely ever heard of the guy until a few years ago a record producer said that I remined him of "a young Bob Dylan." Quite confused, I thanked him for what seemed to be a compliment and hurried home to learn a little bit about who he was. Since then I've been hooked on his music. He has had quite a profound influence on how I view music as well as how I look at society today as he often did over 40 years ago, and, of course, how one can be used to affect the other. Although Bob Dylan has been credited by some as one of the inciting the destruction of moral values since the 1960, I believe he has alot of wisdom that has been timeless since before his first performances around Greenwich Village in New York City.
I'm currently reading his first memoir, "Chronicles, Volume One" and am learning even more about the man who has become a music and lyrical influence for my own writing. I know that alot of what he writes about is highly controversial and many of the topics are things that I might not even agree with, but he also has alot of great things that people need to hear in today's world. For example, in what is most likely one of his most famous songs, Dylan sings:

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

A Dylan song might be a call to end war or an analysis of the era's culture, but either way, the words are timeless. They ring as true and as vital to the heartbeat of society today as they did when first sung 44 years ago.

True Love, by Phil Wickham

While traveling from Minnesota back to college in Missouri on New Year's Day this year, I was listening to "True Love," by Phil Wickham. I'd heard the song several times already, but for some reason I finally had the chance to truly pay attention to the world he was singing. Wickham poetically sings the amazing truth of the Gospel, who Jesus is, and His amazing love for us:

"When blood and water hit the ground, walls we couldn't move came crashing down."





Regardless of your beliefs, I encourage you to listen to this song. He is definitely an amazing musican.

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstartes his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6-8)