Meet Ren Gill & Get to Know Yourself Better

existential crises exploited!

Ren Gill, a young musician from Brighton, England, at age 25,  had just been signed by Sony. Before he could begin his new career, he got violently ill & bedridden. By bedridden, we're talking some days spending 23 hours in bed.

Ren went from doctor to doctor to alternative therapies and from misdiagnosis to misdiagnosis to misdiagnosis. He suffered physically from debilitating pain & neurological issues, emotionally from depression and, eventually, mentally due to stress-induced psychosis.

After many years, Ren was finally properly diagnosed with Lyme Disease.

The details of his story are here.

The biggest part of Ren's story is a song he wrote & performed on YouTube called "Hi Ren" last month, which already has 4.2 million views. It gives voice to his inner dialogue, to my inner dialogue, and very likely to your inner dialogue. It's a dialogue many of us may not even be listening to or, at least, ignore from time to time, whether for days or, too often, seasons of our lives.

Ren expresses his inner dialogue through his holistic & phenomenal, multifaceted virtuosity as lyricist, composer, musician, vocalist &  artist.

His performance immediately reminded of Thomas Merton's characterizations of our ubiquitous existential crises, which we all experience in terms of both continuity - not mincing words, here, we all fear death in its many forms, and creativity - we all want to somehow matter and make a difference.

Nothing I've written will prepare you for Hi Ren.

Watch here:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=s_nc1IVoMxc&feature=shares


Rosalie, a singer/songwriter and music producer with a Masters in Counseling Psychology, reacts to Ren's artistry. She explores line by line, note by note, gesture by gesture, how Ren's song & performance can open us to God's healing and help us grow in God's grace. I recommend you watch it as an excellent companion piece to which Ren recently responded affirmatively:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=6roqjkKCnIk&feature=shares

Because of the vocal genre, I recommend you turn on closed captions for both Ren & Rosalie’s videos.

As usual, thank you Tom Belt.