You may or may not recall me mentioning the small group I’m involved with; I’ve blogged about them before. My observations today are less spiritual than, well, random, I guess. Anyway, as small as we are, I’m noticing a disturbing trend.

There’s only about ten of us all together, five couples made up of seemingly run of the mill people, nothing extraordinary about us that I can see. But in the past month or so, two of the women have fallen down their stairs at home, one breaking her wrist and the other her shoulder. The second was just the other day, and I heard the news from a brother who was golfing with her husband when he got the call that an ambulance was taking his wife to the hospital. I appreciated him letting me know, as he assumed I’d be wanting to take the family some meals, lift them in prayer, bear a part of their burden in some practical way. And I would have. If I wasn’t laid up from a recent arm surgery at the time. Yup, as Nancy was tumbling down her front staircase I was having a large cyst dug out of my upper arm, complete with smoke rising from my shoulder as the doctor cauterized my veins. (I only mention that part because it looked so cool. I even thought it was cool until later that night when I dropped to the couch for the next 40 hours).

Well, no worries, I’d just call another sister to take up the slack. Sounded good until she answered the phone in a strange croak, not unlike a rabid frog. Yup, sick with the flu and recovering from her own colonscopy. See what I mean? A bit spooky, I’d say.

Yes, there’s still one woman left still standing to make dinner and represent. But the problem is I’d have to climb a flight of stairs to get to the phone. A girl really can’t be too careful these days, you know.

A lot of trends start in Hollywood, and that ain’t necessarily a good thing. I watched a TV report this morning, complete with a pictorial array of ‘stars,’ on how famous unmarried parents have helped to coin a new word into the popular lexicon: baby daddy. Apparently that’s how you introduce your baby’s father when you’re unwed. “Please meet Henry, my baby daddy.” Creepy on a number of levels.

But I’m also picking up on another slowly developing rise of events that may or may not be something to worry about. When I read this morning about the depression struggles of Fall Out boy frontman Pete Wentz, and his newly revealed suicide attempt, it brought to mind the more highly publicized troubles this past fall of popular actor Owen Wilson, and a tiny alarm went off in the pit of my stomach…or the back of my mind… same thing. I wondered… is this too a trend that could reach into popular culture?

You think I’m making a mountain out of a molehill? Who could have foreseen 25 years ago the number of teenaged girls who would willfully starve themselves to the point of death to emulate celebrities? Stranger things have happened, unfortunately. And the briefest of searches on celebrity suicide attempts quickly turns up a surprisingly long and diverse list, including Halle Berry, Donna Summer, Greg Louganis, Drew Carey, Mike Wallace, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Young, Adam Ant, Tai Babilonia, Drew Barrymore, Danny Bonaduce, and Johnny Cash, among many, many others. Some were more serious than others, but all were confessed by the celebrities themselves as sincere desires to end life at the time.

It brought to my mind a remark made to me yesterday in an interview with talented, upbeat indie performer Alyce Metallo. She mentioned to me that there needs to be more songs that tell the truth about the world’s need for a savior, songs with a clear-cut gospel message. I found it a provocative thought, and wasn’t completely clear just how much I agreed with her at that moment. This morning’s news, and the recent rumblings of my stomach/mind, make me wonder anew.

‘Tis a season of change, around CMCentral, Salem Publishing, and in the music industry at large. But say it with me, people: change is good. This is one that I think we will all enjoy anyway.

The present review scoring system was one I inherited upon my arrival as Editor of CMCentral a year ago. I never liked it, the readers never liked it, and I can only imagine that the artists found it confusing as well. But when questions were raised and sturdy arguments voiced against said system, the benefits of the 1-100 points were presented as a done deal. If it was good enough for grade schoolers, it was good enough for us.

Well, readers, let the church bells chime and the people flood the streets in joy, for the system, she is gone. In the wind. Out of gas. No more. The good people at Salem Publishing have allowed us to move into the 21st century with a new review score system, one that imparts information in a manner easily grasped. A review, at its heart, is simply an opinion, after all. I try to do a general run through of an album’s significant moments, but what I find significant may be quite different than what you find significant, and I recognize that not everyone is sitting on the edge of their seats with bated breath waiting for my opinion to drop from the heights. So a simple icon might present the general sense of a review in a quick, easily accessed format. A 5 star system will be our new scoring mechanism, one that most readers are already very familiar with. Let the grade schoolers deal with the percentages; we like our stars and half stars. Look for the shining to begin next Tuesday, the day that new reviews post on CMCentral.

It began with his visit to assist in the cleanup work after the deadly tornados that ravished Macon County, TN on February 5th. Brandon Heath returned from that experience with a continued burden to help, rather than a self-satisfied smugness that he had gone at all. I say that I guess because I could imagine myself doing it; feeling so good that I had contributed at all that I missed the opportunity to do more. Not Brandon. In less than ten days he managed to put together a songwriters-in-the-round show to raise funds for his beleaguered neighbors. Seventeen people had been killed by the storms, and 150 homes and businesses were destroyed, but Brandon and friends Bebo Norman, Jason Ingram, Nathan & Christy Nockels, and Michael W. Smith came together to provide support, to shine a light into the darkness of those devastated lives.

The free concert took up a love offering of $18,690 for the survivors, and another 85 people committed to join in the clean-up project. It did my heart good just reading about it, for several reasons. The obvious, of course, is that one man cared this much. I love it that Brandon Heath didn’t just write a check; he traveled to the hurting community and picked up a shovel to show his concerns. And he broke through the scheduling challenges to bring together other artists who cared enough to give their time as well. To put together a concert in less than ten days is impressive in itself. Together the arts community raised a significant amount of support for the hurting survivors.

It’s gratifying to see people beginning finally to take up the cause of Africa. But it’s heartwarming too to see the same cup of cool water offered to sufferers close to home. I pray that the broken-hearted of Macon County feel strengthened by the efforts of Brandon and Friends. I know I do.