The Not-So-Magic Marker

When compact discs were the hot new music format, I remember a curious legend making the rounds: If you used a green Magic Marker to color the edge of the CD, you would get a noticeable improvement in the already-awesome digital sound quality. This “insider information” was printed in many music magazines and side-by-side listening tests were conducted to see if the difference was really there. I even recall at least one Austin music store selling specially-packaged green markers just for this purpose. Did I try this on some of my own discs? No comment. But it was the only time in my life I actually had a green thumb.
You’d expect that, by now, CDs would have their edges painted green at the factory, to ensure that increased quality for consumers, right? They don’t, though, and the record stores no longer carry Magic Markers. Know why? Because it was eventually proven with a bevy of upscale machinery that coloring a CD had absolutely no effect on the sound.
When Jesus came to this place, bringing a new message, a new way of life involving loving other people in the same way God loves us, it was pretty exciting. But some people had to grab their green Magic Markers. They had to add lists of rules that a follower of Jesus had to obey. They had to hang up signs to separate the “real” Christians from the “not really” Christians. They had to choose to love some people while clinging to the right to hate some other people.
Compact discs don’t need to be painted up to sound better. And “amazing grace” is already the sweeetest sound in the universe. Don’t mark it up…TURN IT UP!