Monday, May 12, 2008

Making Music

I first heard it when I entered the post office. Someone was humming a song I looked, and the young woman had no earphones. She was actually making music on her own with no external prompts. Music was springing forth from her, and I recognized the tune. Surely a kindred spirit!

How long has it been since I have heard just a regular person make music? We hum or tap along with some other music maker, but to have a song of our own without an iPod, a concert or church setting? Well, there is the short Happy Birthday song often poorly executed and usually sung with a group. We rarely sing the Star Spangled Banner anymore. We listen to hear how many extra notes the singer can add, how heartfelt the song is delivered, and clap when we feel that the high notes were sung with wild abandon, but we don't sing.

Surely we are not so intimidated by experts that we are afraid of our own expression. Probably we did not grow up making any music. Certainly there is less music training for our youngest ones. We think that we have more important things to teach in school. (There is that all important semicolon after all.) The saddest thought of all would be that we are so busy, stressed, and preoccupied with the whirlwind of life that we don't have the energy to make our own music, music that could give voice to our trials and joys.

But, today I heard a brave soul making music, not for others, just for herself, and I smiled.

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