The Eightfold Path of Hayes Carll
A Note on the Religious Side of his Music
I won't pretend to speak for Hayes Carll's religion, whatever it is. But I will speak to a kind of religion that four of his songs inspire in me and perhaps others. Or, perhaps better, a religious attitude that his songs inspire. In the spirit of Buddhism, I'll call it the Eightfold Path of Hayes Carll.
Sensitivity to Loss. It is a religious attitude that is attentive to loss: for example, the the sadness of people who lose their memories. It does not hide from the fact that all things - all things! - pass away. (Help Me Remember)
Tolerance. It is a religious attitude that hopes we will learn to respect one another amid our differences. (Different Boats)
Presence to life. It is a religious attitude of honesty to life itself - life's blessings and curses, its faults and scars, and its sometimes lucky stars - and to a kind of tragic beauty that shines through it all.
Love. It is a religious attitudethat celebrates the possibility that people can love and accept one another in their tragic beauty. (You Get it All)
Awareness of Sin. It is a religious attitude that freely speaks of God as She, that and rightly recognizes the gap between the dreams of God, that we love one another, and the callousness of our ways. We sin. (Nice Things)
Inclusion. It is a religious attitude that has no patience at all with mean-spirited fundamentalism, including the idea embraced by fundamentalists that their way is the only way. (Nice Things)
Panentheism. It is a religion that is open to the possibility that the mystery within and beyond life, God, includes the whole of life in its tragic beauty, because the world is God's body. There is no sharp dichotomy between this world and God. It sees God panentheistically. (For more on panentheism, click here.)
Humor. It is a religious attitude that can laugh at itself and at tendencies to make "gods" of religion.
The value of Carll's music is that it invites us to reflect on these ideas, not by stating them the way I did, but by singing them in images and stories, humor and irony, melody and rhythm. His songs take us into the Eightfold Path.
Another value of his music is that it is portable: that is, its ideas can be imported by different people in different ways into their own approach to life. The eight ideas, plus many more, can be folded into various religious orientations: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Hindu, Spiritually Independent, and Buddhist, for example.
I mention Buddhism for a reason. Hayes Carll went to Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where I taught. According to my recollection, he took one class with me; and I think it was Introduction to Buddhism.
I also remember what I assigned him as a class project. The default assignment was a reflection paper of one sort or another, but in those days I also gave students the option of an art project: poetry, music, filmmaking. Hayes chose music. On a sunny afternoon he brought his guitar to my office; we went outside and sat on a bench; and he played some songs he was working on. It never occurred to me that he would become well-known as a singer-songwriter, but I knew then, as I know now, that there was a religious side to his life. I sensed it in his presence in class and in the songs he played for me. On that afternoon, the religious side was in the melodies and lyrics, to be sure, but also in the sincerity with which he sang them. I say “sincerity” with a little hesitation, because he is known to many as having a sarcastic side. But I don’t take sarcasm all that seriously now, and I didn't then, either. Typically, it’s the flip side of a frustrated idealism, and I think it’s the idealism I sensed in Hayes. Not an overly romantic idealism that pretends all is perfectly pretty even as it appears otherwise; but rather an idealism that seeks, and is sensitive to, tragic beauty. Tragic beauty is the beauty of ordinary life, with its struggles and pain, pleasures and joys, failures and humiliations, broken and realized dreams. It is the presence to life that is at the heart of Hayes Carll's music. I sensed then, and sense now, that he seeks to be present to life, including his own. No need to hang back and pretend it's all theater, with us as spectators. This life is where we find ourselves. Buddhists teach us that life unfolds moment by moment, and that in some deep sense, the moments are what we have and all we have. Process theology says the same. Hayes Carll helps us remember what we have, cherish what can be cherished, and hold on to those who suffer with, in Whitehead's phrase, a "tender care that nothing be lost." This is not to say that, in life on earth, things aren't lost. It is to say that we can remember what is lost with tender care, and help those who can't remember.
In process theology God is understood as the Deep Memory in which all things are remembered even as they pass away. Hayes Carll's songs are acts of remembrance. In this way, although he might not think of things this way, his songs are hymns and prayers. They are fragile and finite acts of participating in the Deep Memory, from the chapel to the hearse, and maybe after that, too.
- Jay McDaniel, 12/30/2021
Sensitivity to Loss. It is a religious attitude that is attentive to loss: for example, the the sadness of people who lose their memories. It does not hide from the fact that all things - all things! - pass away. (Help Me Remember)
Tolerance. It is a religious attitude that hopes we will learn to respect one another amid our differences. (Different Boats)
Presence to life. It is a religious attitude of honesty to life itself - life's blessings and curses, its faults and scars, and its sometimes lucky stars - and to a kind of tragic beauty that shines through it all.
Love. It is a religious attitudethat celebrates the possibility that people can love and accept one another in their tragic beauty. (You Get it All)
Awareness of Sin. It is a religious attitude that freely speaks of God as She, that and rightly recognizes the gap between the dreams of God, that we love one another, and the callousness of our ways. We sin. (Nice Things)
Inclusion. It is a religious attitude that has no patience at all with mean-spirited fundamentalism, including the idea embraced by fundamentalists that their way is the only way. (Nice Things)
Panentheism. It is a religion that is open to the possibility that the mystery within and beyond life, God, includes the whole of life in its tragic beauty, because the world is God's body. There is no sharp dichotomy between this world and God. It sees God panentheistically. (For more on panentheism, click here.)
Humor. It is a religious attitude that can laugh at itself and at tendencies to make "gods" of religion.
The value of Carll's music is that it invites us to reflect on these ideas, not by stating them the way I did, but by singing them in images and stories, humor and irony, melody and rhythm. His songs take us into the Eightfold Path.
Another value of his music is that it is portable: that is, its ideas can be imported by different people in different ways into their own approach to life. The eight ideas, plus many more, can be folded into various religious orientations: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Hindu, Spiritually Independent, and Buddhist, for example.
I mention Buddhism for a reason. Hayes Carll went to Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where I taught. According to my recollection, he took one class with me; and I think it was Introduction to Buddhism.
I also remember what I assigned him as a class project. The default assignment was a reflection paper of one sort or another, but in those days I also gave students the option of an art project: poetry, music, filmmaking. Hayes chose music. On a sunny afternoon he brought his guitar to my office; we went outside and sat on a bench; and he played some songs he was working on. It never occurred to me that he would become well-known as a singer-songwriter, but I knew then, as I know now, that there was a religious side to his life. I sensed it in his presence in class and in the songs he played for me. On that afternoon, the religious side was in the melodies and lyrics, to be sure, but also in the sincerity with which he sang them. I say “sincerity” with a little hesitation, because he is known to many as having a sarcastic side. But I don’t take sarcasm all that seriously now, and I didn't then, either. Typically, it’s the flip side of a frustrated idealism, and I think it’s the idealism I sensed in Hayes. Not an overly romantic idealism that pretends all is perfectly pretty even as it appears otherwise; but rather an idealism that seeks, and is sensitive to, tragic beauty. Tragic beauty is the beauty of ordinary life, with its struggles and pain, pleasures and joys, failures and humiliations, broken and realized dreams. It is the presence to life that is at the heart of Hayes Carll's music. I sensed then, and sense now, that he seeks to be present to life, including his own. No need to hang back and pretend it's all theater, with us as spectators. This life is where we find ourselves. Buddhists teach us that life unfolds moment by moment, and that in some deep sense, the moments are what we have and all we have. Process theology says the same. Hayes Carll helps us remember what we have, cherish what can be cherished, and hold on to those who suffer with, in Whitehead's phrase, a "tender care that nothing be lost." This is not to say that, in life on earth, things aren't lost. It is to say that we can remember what is lost with tender care, and help those who can't remember.
In process theology God is understood as the Deep Memory in which all things are remembered even as they pass away. Hayes Carll's songs are acts of remembrance. In this way, although he might not think of things this way, his songs are hymns and prayers. They are fragile and finite acts of participating in the Deep Memory, from the chapel to the hearse, and maybe after that, too.
- Jay McDaniel, 12/30/2021