Sarah Lesch has done an amazing masterpiece with her song "Testament", describing in depth with all possible detail and with more than one mocking phrase what failures our current system has got to face and cure itself of.
While first addressing the misconception of previous generations that children are there to be formed according to the expecations by their parents, ignored when having own ideas or imagination and kept quiet while teaching them what to belief and how to conform to society, she adds fuel to the fire of today's general societal discourses. For years and nearly a generation back, society has begun to change. Parents that no longer trust any doctor with their diagnosis or teacher with their opinions, have started to see the wisdom within their children and accepted that they might learn as much from their little ones as they could teach them. Nonetheless the majority of grown-ups today have been children that have not been listened to, that have been forced into a corset of societal belief systems without regards for their needs, dreams or wishes.
Sarah Lesch takes everyone, regardless of their upbringing, on a journey with her song. She describes how the misfits of today are the ones that bring change and show us that individuality is the new pathway to follow.She specifically enforces all those that still worship the old ways and create problems where there ought not be any, even more she calls those who have sold their hearts to profit and a life without soul or heart, to think back on their own upbringing and indoctrination, of their own personal and intimate struggle to find love and acceptance in this world, how they too are no more than hurt children within bodies of grown-ups.
She clearly describes how it used to be, how imagination and ideas where banished, how conformity was the goal of existence, how dreams have been crushed only to realize late in life that we have not been following our own dreams, goals or fulfillment. And she even invites everyone in that might block out her words when she shows us what happens when we try to do the same things over and over again with our own children, because we do not know it better [yet], because we trust the rules that have been made for us more than our love and inutition when it comes to bringing up our very own offspring We want to shove them into the same system that was not right for us to begin with, because we think we do them a favor, we think we make it easier for them if we teach them to adjust to this system. How we let them hustle within a school system that falls apart as more and more children become independent thinkers and will not surrender to anything that makes no sense to them. How teachers suffocate because they were trained within old ways and are not able to handle the increased sovereignty of our little ones, their pride to think for themselves, be themselves. Due to state affairs of low budget and increased pressure for parents to work so much they have no chance to be there and teach their children values, our whole system is critized by this song. How we intoxicate children with medication because we are not able to comprehend them, because we do not have the resources, the knowledge, the time.
But most importantly she closes with one fact that gives hope: There are fewer that think that way and more come out who will not stand for the way things have been done. More that due to new possibilities are able to form new life models, balance work around family because this is how it is supposed to be. Work should be your fulfillment, your joy but even if it is not that at all, it never should eat up all of your precious time- the new age is dawning where life is not about working but about living.
And government and economy will rise to the call from the people soon enough because they will have no choice but to change. After all we decide in which way the economy may work for us, we decide what to buy where, we decide how our society, or community looks like, we decide how we want our life experience to feel like.
Personally this song really brought such great relief in a time where I could not even understand where my displeasure came from. Through her lyrics, through her performance, something inside me suddenly clicked and all my feelings began to make sense. As soon as they made sense they started to change and displeasure, malcontent and even anger against all norms, morphed itself. From displeasure rose motivation to create the lifestyle I wanted to live, from malcontent suddenly a way of courage to look and work at and on myself became a clearer, from anger love emerged, by recognizing that every one out there does the best they can to the best of their ability within their belief system. Meaning that I myself can and was to be the change that I wanted to see within the world rather than anyone or any system could have power over me and my choices of living or dreaming.
