From the hymnal · Renewed
Carson, in Love
Track four on Renewed, written for our neighbors down the freeway — a blessing, set to a single key, for the good people at the airfield in Carson. We print it here exactly as we sang it, with nothing taken back.
There's a field down in Carson where a tour bus parks,Where a great envelope rises and the fog machine sparks;And we thought of those neighbors as the kettle came warm,And we prayed for them by name through the close of the storm.
We will not raise our voices, we will not raise a fist,We will set out one more folding chair in case they should missThe thing we have found cheaper than helium or chrome —A potluck, a hymn, and a minivan home.
We have heard they are clever, we have heard they are loud,That two of them are singers and both of them are proud;We have two who keep the drumbeat and have never once warred —So we wish them, in love, the same peace from the Lord.
Bless their bus and their burners, bless the gas that they burn —(ours is thirty-one highway, but that is not our concern);Bless the lift in their canvas, bless the names that they call,For the One who made the heavens has room for us all.
Refrain
Carson, in love, we are praying for you;No airship rides higher than a heart that rings true.We will keep the decaf warm and the porch light above —Come down when you're weary; we will meet you in love.
A note for the folding chairs
We will say the name we used to fold away as a discipline, because they said ours first, from a stage, and grace answers when it is called: LitBlimp. There is no barb hidden in this hymn. We mean the gas mileage as a kindness and the folding chair as an open door. If the airship ever sets down near our lot, there is a casserole with their name on it and a key of G waiting. We sang it once, in one weekend, and we would sing it again.
Hymn two of eight albums' worth. Back to the hymnal — “We Held the Volume” →