He Who Sings Scares Away His Woes
Posted on November 30, 2009 with 0 comments
In the long human tradition, the heart has often been said to be our symbolic spiritual, emotional and moral center. Religious texts have attributed to the heart great mystical significance and even divinity. The Egyptians had it right I think, by weighing the soul portion of the heart against the feather of truth to determine if a person would make it into paradise. For me, the heart can hear the truth, can feel the pain, can taste the sorrow, can smell the deceit, can see the complexities, can heal the soul, can release the unspoken, can liberate the accused, can lift the burdened, can heal the broken.
A quote taken from the wall of an old opera house goes, “God gave us music that we might pray without words.†Music has the ability to lift, to transform, to shape our thoughts and feelings and root them in the earth. When we sing, when we raise our voices in song, when we allow music to enter our being, we open our hearts to possibility and we give ourselves permission to go where the music wants to take us. Making music together is a transformational experience, a powerful tool for change and community building. Victor Hugo said, “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.†Music fills in us a need to express and to be heard, to create and to be fulfilled. To fill a building with song, to ‘raise the rafters’ is a powerfully mystical experience, guaranteed to quiet doubts and questions and fortify the spirit for the challenges ahead.
In Man of La Mancha Cervantes says, “He who sings scares away his woes.†Cervantes was a wise fellow. Sometimes though, instead of wisdom, what I need is a bit of irreverence. So just to cover all the bases, “There’s no bad day that can’t be overcome by listening to a barbershop quartet; this is just truth, plain and simple.â€
- miriam
A quote taken from the wall of an old opera house goes, “God gave us music that we might pray without words.†Music has the ability to lift, to transform, to shape our thoughts and feelings and root them in the earth. When we sing, when we raise our voices in song, when we allow music to enter our being, we open our hearts to possibility and we give ourselves permission to go where the music wants to take us. Making music together is a transformational experience, a powerful tool for change and community building. Victor Hugo said, “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.†Music fills in us a need to express and to be heard, to create and to be fulfilled. To fill a building with song, to ‘raise the rafters’ is a powerfully mystical experience, guaranteed to quiet doubts and questions and fortify the spirit for the challenges ahead.
In Man of La Mancha Cervantes says, “He who sings scares away his woes.†Cervantes was a wise fellow. Sometimes though, instead of wisdom, what I need is a bit of irreverence. So just to cover all the bases, “There’s no bad day that can’t be overcome by listening to a barbershop quartet; this is just truth, plain and simple.â€
- miriam