Keep Singing

Keep Singing

  

As a child I worried about everything.  I worried about my self and feeling different, isolated, and alone. I worried about my family’s well-being.  I worried about school. I worried about questions I had about God and church and the world and everyone’s place in it. I worried about endangered animals. I worried about anything and everything in the world.  I could invent things to worry about. Thankfully, the older I get, the less I worry (some friends and family would beg to differ, but I swear…I’m better than I was!), and the less I fear.

When a national tragedy occurs, however, life thrusts me back into my childhood, and I feel completely helpless and worry-stricken. When the Boston Marathon terrorist explosion occurred, something in me collapsed.  As I drove around on work errands on that mid-April day, I began to hear the news reports on the radio. I remember thinking to myself, “Are you kidding me?! What now?!”

As someone who has run one marathon (yes, only one, and I’m PROUD of it), two half-marathons, and numerous 5Ks, I kind of get the joy of running. I know the exhilarating rush and joy that comes with it. That joy I feel pales in comparison to passionate runners who do so every day and run numerous marathons a year. Running permeates their lives. They get up in the morning to run. They eat, sleep, work, and breathe running. I know some of these people, and I might, at times, think they’re a bit nuts, but they inspire me deeply.  I have heard people in running groups discuss aspirations and dreams of running the New York or Boston Marathon. It is a major milestone for the passionate runner.  I know this is why my heart broke so emphatically for those affected by the bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. While the runners were pushing themselves toward the end of a milestone, some of them came to the end of their lives. Some of them were maimed in such a way that their running lives would never be the same. I could not stop worrying for these passionate runners.

There is a song by Patty Griffin (I promise not to quote her in every blog) that she wrote for her father when he passed away. Her poignant lyrics remind me of an afterlife that I hope for anyone who is taken from this world unnecessarily too soon, especially those who die in pursuit of a passion or a great love. It’s entitled, “Go Wherever You Wanna Go.” We all have the human right to follow our passions and to go where we want to go in life in order to thrive and be the human beings we are destined to be. To me, it seems evil is magnified in a tragedy like Boston’s. Not only did the killers terrorize a group of people, they terrorized a group of people who were pursuing their life’s passion.

On Tuesday, April 16, right after the bombing, I was driving to rehearsal for Turtle Creek Chorale. As I drove, still worrying and thinking about Boston, something clicked. One of my life’s greatest passions is music and singing. What if I could no longer sing? What if I could no longer go to TCC on Tuesday evenings and sing with my Turtle Brothers? And worse, what if someone intentionally took that passion from me…that life force that made my place in this world so valid in my eyes.  As I parked and walked up to Sammons Center for the Arts for rehearsal, I made a promise to myself that I would embrace every moment of this rehearsal. I owed it to myself and to the victims in Boston.

We had a productive rehearsal that night. Our “Kander and Ebb” concert run was two days away, so we ran through song after song with vigor.

As the end of rehearsal neared, our artistic director, Trey Jacobs, began to speak of the bombing and how we could honor the victims. He proceeded to lead us in a song we sang at our fall concert, a recurring song in our repertoire entitled, “The Awakening,” by Joseph M. Martin. The song recounts a dream (or perhaps a nightmare) of a world devoid of music. The dreamer imagines a place where “no bird sang” and “no choir sang to change the world.” At the end of the song, the dreamer awakens and declares:

“Let music never die in me! Forever let my spirit sing! Wherever emptiness is found, let there be joy and glorious sound. Let music never die in me! Forever let my spirit sing! Let all our voices join as one to praise the Giver of the song. Awake! Awake! Let music live! Let Music live!” (Martin).

           

We live in a scary world.  Every week it seems we are bombarded with more bad news. We can all take a lesson from marathon runners. They are an ultimate symbol of passion, perseverance, and accomplishment. We should not let evil or fear keep us from pursuing and enjoying whatever it is that we are passionate about in this life. We owe it to ourselves and to those who have gone before us to thrive in this life in any way we possibly can.

“You can get up on some sunny day and run. Run a hundred miles just for fun now. Heartaches and yesterdays don’t weigh a ton now. You can get up on some sunny day and run. “ – Patty Griffin