“We wanted to live fully human lives.” This line, delivered by a man in the documentary Freedom’s Fury, was in reference to the Hungarian resistance to the Soviets in 1956. But it gives us pause on many levels. What does it mean to be fully human or to live a fully human life?
Most often, as in this film, we think about it when something is missing—that is, when we are asked to live in a way that isn’t fully human. For these Hungarians, the Communists could provide housing, jobs, and determine everything they were permitted to read, say, and think. But the Communists had no conception of or interest in permitting a fully human life—so Hungarian dissidents resisted.
Sometimes, however, we get glimpses of a fully human life in the affirmative—things that show us what might be possible, spiritually deep, and alive. That was sort of the message delivered with glorious force and passion recently at a concert given by the great jazz singer Kurt Elling and the Strathmore Jazz Orchestra at the Strathmore Center in Maryland. It was a fantastic concert, and one that carried powerful spiritual meaning, as well as lots of joy and humor.
Elling is the premier male jazz vocalist in America. He’s been nominated for eight Grammys and won two. Elling also very plainly adores American jazz music. That seems like an obvious thing to say about a jazz singer, but in Elling’s case, it is clear that his love for it is all-consuming because it is infectious. His heart seemed to expand whenever he lovingly spoke of “this music” or of artists like Duke Ellington, Wayne Shorter, and John Scofield.
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