It was tough last night, but I defeated Donald Trump. I apologize for even writing this, because he certainly doesn’t need any more attention or articles written about him, but the story must be told. I will keep it brief and then you can devote your time to reading about people who ought to be read […]
Category Archives: Choir
What I Learned About Representation From a Mistake I Made in College
There is something undeniably unsettling about having to represent someone whose views you disagree with. It seems wrong somehow, to not take a side. And yet part of the responsibility that comes with power is the burden of taking all sides into account. When a politician says “my constituents,” they shouldn’t just mean the people […]
Names You Call Your Mother-in-Law
I met my mother-in-law when I was in high school at best, though it may have been middle school. Like all adults those days, I called her Mrs. with her last name. My kids’ friends do not call me by my last name today; they use my first name just like everyone else. But back […]
A Death on My Watch
I have been to some funerals in my life: all four of my grandparents’, my great grandmother’s, and more recently my cousin’s. All have affected me in some way, but I have never lost someone geographically close to me before. I have lost friends from high school, and old teachers, but these were people I […]
Uptown Funk – Easter Edition
It all started back in February, probably near Ash Wednesday sometime, when Lent and Easter were on my mind. I was driving in the car when Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” came on the radio. Bruno Mars started singing “Uptown funk you up,” and yet all that was going through my head was “Christ is risen […]
Instructions For Building an Actual Time Machine. Just Add Music.
I traveled back through time on Sunday, through days and hours, months and years, in a machine made of melody and gossamer ribbons of sound. I didn’t do it intentionally; it just sort of happened. My true intent was to stay in 2014 and attend the 200th anniversary celebration kick-off service at my old church […]
How Important is This Rehearsal?
There is a classic, unanswerable question that seems to constantly be flowing from someone’s lips on the day of almost every rehearsal. I’m not pointing fingers here, because this is not confined to one person; it’s more of an epidemic. But last week, a few hours before choir rehearsal, I got a message from one […]
Church Choir Throwdown
I wasn’t nervous until I walked into the building. It hadn’t seemed like that big of a deal, or perhaps I had only been trying to convince myself that this was going to be a low-key, low-pressure, informal gathering of choirs, but as soon as I opened the front door and heard the perfectly polished […]