While taking my slow run on this cloudy December morning, I listened, as I often do, to an On Being Podcast, which featured choral composer and conductor Alice Parker. She spoke of singing as being “the most companionable of arts.” A flood of memories overtook me as I thought about singing in church, school and college choirs most of my early life. I recalled how that art brings the strangest of people together and does so much more than join voices in song; it makes them companions and friends. (Especially when trapped on a tour bus together during college spring break. Am I right, Knox College peeps?) 😉
These recollections then turned into a prayer while my running shoes rhythmically stepped onto pavement:
I prayed that the divided country and world we find ourselves in today would find a way to come together in sound, in song. To find our common voice whether we are the most expert of musicians or tone deaf; To find similarity of tone when there only seems to be discord; To draw that breath, that universal life force in and out of our lungs in time with one another. Helping us realize that what separates us is infinitely smaller that what unites us.
Amen.
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