#224 / Underestimation: Exegesis Of A Song

  

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If you don't underestimate me

I won't underestimate you

"Underestimation" can be a deadly mistake. And don't we all just do it, all the time? Don't we tend to underestimate everybody - and most notably ourselves? That's what I think. 

Let me say, though, that my advice is not to wait around for someone to stop by to give you the kind of accurate estimate of your own abilities that you know, deep down, is truly merited. The words I have just quoted, in offset, are from a Bob Dylan Song, "Dear Landlord." That song, the way I hear it, is speaking to the issue, and is providing some excellent advice. 

I'll put the entire lyrics of "Dear Landlord" at the bottom of this blog posting, along with a link that will let you hear Bob Dylan sing that song himself. The way I understand the song, Dylan is having a conversation with God (the "Landlord"), and the first four lines of every verse is Dylan's statement to God. The last four lines of every verse provide God's comeback to Dylan (and to us all). 

So, Dylan says in the first verse that he doesn't want God to "put a price on his soul." We are all worried about that, I assume, just like Dylan is, but God comes right back with some reassurance. When "that steamboat whistle blows," God is going to give us "all he has to give." That's pretty good news!

In verse number two, Dylan wants God to know that while God has "suffered much" (I think Dylan is alluding to Jesus' cruxifixion), we are all suffering, and God is not so unique where suffering is concerned. God more or less admits the point, but suggests that maybe Dylan should be taking a little bit more personal responsibility for the suffering that Dylan is talking about. 

In the last verse, Dylan is pretty much begging for mercy, more or less, telling God he isn't going to argue with God, and he's sticking with him; he's not moving to any other place. I think Dylan is kind of reiterating that plea he made to God in the first verse, and God comes right back, as before, with reassurance. Every one of us has a "special gift" - and that was always been meant to be true. So, here is God's message back to Dylan, summing up how things stand:

If you don't underestimate me

I won't underestimate you

Now, I read that as a statement meant to be reassuring, but it's a call to have some faith in "the Landlord." If we don't underestimate what God can do for us, we will be rewarded by finding out that God will not underestimate us, either, which I think means that we will find that we have the ability to do what we need to do - even if we didn't know we had that ability. 

We can, in other words, confront and overcome any challenge - if we will just have some faith. We need to believe we can, of course - that's a first step, and it's ours to take - because that's what unlocks that "special gift" that we bring to the table. It's all reassuring, overall, but the responsibility, in the end, is placed right on us. God's not letting us off the hook!

Since it's Sunday, you can consider this exegesis of Dylan's song as a kind of stand in for a sermon, just in case you're not in some church, or in a Quaker Meeting, or somewhere else where there is a gathering together, for mutual support, of those of us who are battling off the double-sided underestimation that afflicts us all.

Let's not underestimate the challenges we have ahead. They're manifold! In many ways, they're terrible!

But let us not underestimate our own ability to rise to the occasion, and to do what we need to do. 

Underestimation can be a deadly mistake, so let's not make that mistake. Looking up, or looking right in the mirror, the conversation goes both ways: 

And if you don't underestimate me

I won't underestimate you

oooOOOooo

oooOOOooo

Dear Landlord
WRITTEN BY: BOB DYLAN

Dear landlord
Please don’t put a price on my soul
My burden is heavy
My dreams are beyond control
When that steamboat whistle blows
I’m gonna give you all I got to give
And I do hope you receive it well
Dependin’ on the way you feel that you live

Dear landlord
Please heed these words that I speak
I know you’ve suffered much
But in this you are not so unique
All of us, at times, we might work too hard
Too heavy, too fast, and too much
And anyone can fill his life up
With things he can see but he just cannot touch

Dear landlord
Please don’t dismiss my case
I’m not about to argue
I’m not about to move to no other place
Now, each of us has his own special gift
And you know this was meant to be true
And if you don’t underestimate me
I won’t underestimate you

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Image Credit:

https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/dear-landlord/