Perfect Day
One of my favourite songs is the 1972 Lou Reed classic ‘Perfect Day’, which is perhaps best known when a version was made of it in 1997 to promote the BBC’s music coverage and the ‘Children In Need’ charity.
It is at heart a simple ode to what one person (in this case Lou Reed) thought was his ‘perfect day’. For those not familiar with it, it tells of his perfect day being spending a day with the love of his life drinking sangria in a park, feeding animals in the zoo, going to a movie and then “we go home”. The song celebrates that it is a perfect day because he spent his time with that person, his problems all left alone and being able to forget himself, and then commenting “You made me forget myself, I thought I was someone else -someone good”.
However, the emotional crescendo of the song is when one line is repeated four times. The lyric in question? “You’re going to reap just what you sow”.
As Christians we will know that line is very familiar to us. It comes from two parts of the New Testament - 2 Corinthians 9:6 where Paul talks about whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously, making it clear “A man reaps what he sows”. Also in Galatians 6:7-9 Paul talks about God not being deceived because “..you reap whatever you sow”.
Although here Paul was talking about the need for people to give generously in community it applies also to how we generally live our lives.
In simple terms it can mean that your current set of circumstances or situation are a result of previous behaviour. One thing leads to another. Jesus himself said something similar in Matthew 26: 26:52 when he said to Peter “..for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword”, or more plainly “those who live by the sword (will) die by the sword”. Look at Barabas who felt the way to find peace in Palestine was through force when in fact it will only come through love.
The idea of us all in a sense preparing our own futures by our current actions is something that the Old Testament spoke about. Solomon had previous said that those who plant injustice will harvest disaster, Hosea talked about those who planted wickedness will in time reap its own evil. Proverbs of course teaches us that “They will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes” (Proverbs 1:31).
Going back to the song ‘Perfect Day’, what Lou Reed was trying to say I think is that we all need to spend more time having our own ‘perfect days’, doing things that are positive, life affirming, of the spirit, and out of that better, good things will come, with our real treasure being after our time on earth has ended.
A link to the most well known version of ‘Perfect Day’ is below -wait for the Sir Tom Jones vocal interpretation of Paul’s wisdom!
https://youtu.be/wP-uxfmD6dc?si=nxZ4HyFOltJfUpf2
Tags: BBC, LouReed, perfect day, Children In Need, Tom Jones