Some random thoughts for today...
<>The Music & the Spoken Word broadcast today was a good one. The Spoken Word was all about the beloved author C.S. Lewis and music wise, we sang the fan favorite "Let Us All Press On" arranged by our own Richard Elliott. There's just something really powerful about that particular arrangement and I wish I could articulate what, exactly, is powerful about it. I'm reminded of a question my wife asked me just yesterday: "What criteria do you have for what makes a song great?" She had HER list. But when I thought about MY list, I stumbled big time. Either a song "has it" or it doesn't. Right? I mean, I can name some things I don't like about songs in general, but trying to actually describe why I really like any particular song? I just don't know.
Here are a few tweets about "Let Us All Press On" that came in during Conference a couple of weeks ago:
<>During the run-through this morning, one of our sister choir members had an incident that caused her to go unconscious for a time. I mention this only because I was impressed with what happened next. Choir members around her caught her, members of the security team were on site within seconds, our resident doctor was there to help, and an ambulance came fairly quickly to assist. While I certainly hope the sister is OK, it was comforting to see how so many people were there to help.
<>The presidency of the Choir continues to add new people to the choir administration team. Most recently, a position called "Directors of Ensemble Operations & Support" was added. The couple serving in this position will work to better ensure the performance and other needs of each individual organization are met.
<>The Choir organization (which includes everyone) has an all-hands meeting coming up in November. The agenda of topics for that meeting has not been shared, but if I had to guess, at least one of the topics will be about the next tour.
<>While I'm in the middle of my journey to really love my choir experience again, I've been able to look at this experience as a calling (which it has been all along, but sometimes it's easy to forget that). Everyone who has a calling in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has times when they are discontent, get frustrated, and just wish things were different. But at the end of the day, anyone who wants to succeed at their calling needs to look at it as giving service. "What can I do for the people I serve?" And if I answer THAT question honestly, the harder moments are better and the good moments become great moments.
<>It was a first today regarding my carpool group. We all sat in the very same row. Given that there are two basses, one baritone, and one tenor, the likelihood of that happening again is rare.
<>We started learning ELIJAH today. I've never sung it and have never actually heard it before. But we're getting a jump on learning it so that we won't have so many extra rehearsals in January (we perform it in February as part of the Tanner Gift of Music series).
<>I'm thankful for my choir member friends. They are kind, supportive human beings and I'm a better person because of them.
Until next time, God be with you.
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