Sing! Sing a song!

 

    At this time of the year "songs" are in the air.  One of the radio stations I like, that usually might feature instrumental music, has choral pieces sprinkled through its playlist.  When I walk downtown, or through shopping malls, in addition to the frequent buskers, I also hear groups -- both small and large -- singing.  The songs may be sacred or secular; they may focus on a "silent night" or a "jolly old soul" or an evergreen tree.  Most are familiar (although I do like many of the new compositions).  Many I know well enough that I can join in.
       Yesterday, on campus, I sponsored the 5th annual "Singing in the Season", a time when folks from around DU could gather together and sing "wintry" songs, songs of snow, dreydls and angels.  The enjoyment of singing--and hearing--voices making a joyful noise was palpable.  More than one attendee has, in the last 24 hours, remarked what a great time was that hour spent.        I think often about singing.  Part of it, I know, is because I am a musician, both an instrumentalist and vocalist.  I've sung in choirs and community choruses for as long as I can remember.  I've been a choral conductor too, so I've helped collections of singers come together in common cause.  When you think about it, however, singing isn't something that many of us do all that often any more.  The 7th-inning-stretch in baseball games still features "Take Me Out To The Ballgame", and many spectators DO sing that.  But, as I attend other sporting events, there are fewer, if any, associated musical traditions, and even the National Anthem is usually a solo event.
        There is, indeed, something special about putting emotions and ideas together in musical form, and then "letting it out".  Some of the folks who gathered in Evans Chapel yesterday mentioned that they rarely get to sing with others often remarking that "well, my voice just isn't that good."  Well, I certainly have met many folks who can't carry the proverbial "tune" in the proverbial "bucket".   But my experience has been that, like those in the Chapel yesterday, even many of the "tune-less" enjoy singing, if only in the shower.         We're not all candidates for "The Voice" or "America's Got Talent".  I understand that.  But most, if not all, of us would benefit from a bit more singing.  It's fun.  It's a release.  And, it's good for our psychological health!  So, perhaps it's a ripe idea for a New Year's Resolution:  "I will not let someone else sing MY song!  I will do it myself and enjoy it!"  Maybe the Carpenters (showing my age!) were right:

Sing. 
Sing a song. 
Sing out loud, sing out strong. 
Sing of good things, not bad. 
Sing of happy, not sad. 
Sing. 
Sing a song. 
Make it simple to last your whole life long. 
Don´t worry that it´s not good enough for anyone else to hear. 
Just sing. 
Sing a song. 
La La La La La La 
La La La La La La 

La La La La La La 
Sing. Sing a song. 
Let the world. 
Sing out loud. 
Sing of love there, could be. 
Sing for you and for me. 
Sing a song. 
Make it simple to last your whole life long. 
Don´t worry that it´s not good enough for anyone else to hear. 
Just sing, sing a song.*

Blessings,

Chaplain Gary
* http://www.elyrics.net/read/c/carpenters-lyrics/sing-a-song-lyrics.html

A time for giving

        A commercial playing on the radio these days pitches greeting cards with the following "sentiment" something like:  "Dear sister, you remind me of blinking lights on a Christmas tree, really charming, but also a bit annoying."  Hallmark (yes, it is a Hallmark commercial) thinks that this card would show your sister how much you cared . . . with humor.  Well, I'm not amused, and I doubt my sister would save the card.
        That commercial has been playing in the background of my other musings about this gift-giving season.  For the last few weeks, as I have done for years, I've been working on a "Wish List" that I can share with family members who wonder what I'd "like".  And I've been hounding various family members for their lists.  Certainly, I want to make those members of my family happy, and, I suspect, that they would like to make me happy.  But lately I've begun to wonder whether satisfying another person's "desires" is a gift.  Given the definition of a "gift" -- that it is something freely given to another without expectation of reciprocation, I suppose that most items given from a "wish list" fulfill the definition.  But I still wonder.
        I recall, several years back, that my sister and her husband agreed with one another that they would only give each other gifts that would "delight" the recipient.  I've always thought that that was a fabulous idea.  But then, my practical side says, "But if I get the collapsible saw I want, then I won't have to buy it myself!"  But while the collapsible saw may be useful, is it delightful?
        Giving a gift that "delights" the recipient would demand from me a good bit of thought.  It suggests that I know my family member, or friend, well enough to know what delights them.  It suggests that I spend time with them, listening to them, paying close attention to what I'm seeing and hearing.  It would demand a lot of work.  But I suspect that many recipients would treasure that kind of gift more than they might the well-advertised Chia pet or the latest X-Box game.
         Hallmark's slogan for almost the last seventy years has been "When you care enough to send the very best . . .".  Somehow a card that calls the recipient "annoying" doesn't seem like "the very best".  Nor, in my mind, does it be-speak a great amount of "care".  I may be wrong, or old-school, but this year, I'll avoid the Hallmark store,  and focus more on spending time with my loved ones, hopefully a more thoughtful, "care-full" and delightful, gift. 

Blessings,

Chaplain Gary

Don't know much about . . .

       "What man is a man who does not make the world better?"  So, with that quote from the film "Kingdom of Heaven", I began my meditation a couple of weeks ago.  But, as I was starting to write today, I couldn't think of a better lead in (although I had tried!) for reflecting on Nelson Mandela, who died yesterday at age 95.
         I freely admit that I don't know a lot about Nelson Mandela, although, over the last eighteen hours, I've learned a lot more!  But I have "been around the block" a number of times and I do remember some things.  For example, I remember a newspaper interview I gave MANY years ago with a high-school classmate.  I had spent the previous year as a foreign-exchange student in Australia; he had spent the same year in South Africa.  I remember the photo from that paper; I was wearing an Aussie "digger"-style hat (with one side clipped up -- yes my hats go back a LONG ways!), and he was holding an ostrich egg.  And I remember him answering a question about apartheid, saying something like, "Oh, it's not as bad as it's made out to be."  Mr. Mandela hadn't become quite a global celebrity at that time, but he had already been in prison for a third of his twenty-seven years as an opponent of apartheid.  So, yes, maybe it WAS that bad.
         I remember being on college campuses during the "divestment from South Africa" protests, and the ultimate difference that movement made.  I remember Mandela's refusal of a presidential pardon unless it was linked to the dismantling of apartheid.  I remember his release from prison in 1990.  I remember him and South African president P.W. de Klerk sharing the Nobel Peace Prize.  And I remember him becoming a one-term president--by choice--of South Africa; he chose not to hold on to power.  I remember many of the things he said and stood for, chief among them, not responding to hate with hate.
        Of course, Nelson Mandela, like ALL of us, was not one-dimensional; he wasn't a perfect human being.  He made mistakes.  Not everything he did benefited every single person in South Africa.  And some commentators now are more focused on those errors, or slip-ups, than they are on the great achievements that are Mandela's legacy.  I'm sure those commentators are reflecting more of THEIR "issues" than Mandela's.  So, despite those nay-sayers' beliefs, we have seen the passing of a man who did seek to make the world better and who, for many, succeeded.
        Now we look to the future, to that dreamed-of better world. And, next week, the current world's leaders will gather to pay homage to a man who sought to leave hate behind in his prison cell, rather than to be imprisoned forever by that hate.  I would pray that those leaders who travel to South Africa might, in the words of a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" all of Nelson Mandela's life story and teachings, that they would put aside their hate, their mistrust, their anger, their own failings and commit, with one another--in Mandela's honor, if nothing else--to make the world better.        Honor his legacy, please!
        Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, thank you, and requiescat in pace.
         

Blessings,

Chaplain Gary