The Measure of a Man

Listening a lot lately to Black Cadillac the latest project from Roseanne Cash. Yes, that Cash. This is not a review of her album but it is a very interesting collection of songs. Maybe more about her at another time. Listening to it has made me think about a lot of things – a little about the man himself.
I spent part of my growing up in the 50s – I like Ike, duck and cover and of course country music. But as much as it would be cool to say I’ve always liked Johnny Cash’s music; that wouldn’t be true. I was more of a Duane Eddy fan if I liked anything country at all. Our family didn’t have much in the way of records but we did have a Duane Eddy and one Ernest Tubb. Guess which one got played?
I didn’t care much for Johnny’s style. The guitar work was a little too simple for me (see Duane Eddy) and I wasn’t too big on the quasi-talk style of singing.
In my formative music years, one just didn’t listen to country. Those were the years of the Beatles, James Taylor, Hendrix, Zeppelin et al.
And I think Johnny went off the radar screen for a decade or two or three.
But then next thing you know he’s back and an icon with the younger set to boot! I think we can thank MTV and Tony Bennett for this. Don’t remember the year but Bennett did one of those MTV Unplugged things and all of a sudden kids are raving about this old guy and his music. Go figure. My chronology may be slightly off but soon after Johnny makes a comeback. Diehard country fans would say he never left.
So he makes a video of a Nine Inch Nails song. Hooks up with producer Rick Rubin. And enjoys a revival. New albums, fans of all ages. The man in black is cool. Then he dies. Go figure again.
When he died there was a lot of talk about what a great man he was; especially from the Christian side of things. And apparently in his later years he really returned to perhaps the faith of his childhood or a new-found faith as a mature adult. Doesn’t matter to me. At first I was worried about all the attention to the religious side of Johnny Cash. Would he bear up under the scrutiny? Was he really a good example for us to hold up? After all here was a man who left his first wife under less-than honorable circumstances, slept with a woman who was not his wife, had well-known problems with drugs and alcohol, and was less than a sterling father figure to his kids.
So what is my point in all this rehashing of history? In many ways I think it is perfectly fine to hold up Johnny Cash as a good example of a Christian man. Why? Because he tried. He failed. He got back up and tried again. Both professionally and spiritually. One of those more interesting things I ever heard about Johnny Cash was a story about he and producer Rick Rubin taking communion together over the phone. Maybe doesn't exactly fit our picture of the Sunday-morning ritual but his heart was certainly in the right place. I don’t think he was mis-using or abusing the sacraments. I think he simply saw it as his way of saying; ‘Look here is something that is particularly meaningful to me spiritually. I’d like to share that with you.’
So often Christians are criticized because they want everyone else to be perfect when they/we/I so often aren’t. Johnny Cash was who he was. Just a man in black; and sometimes white.