It was a regular Tuesday morning. I sat up perfectly in my blue metal seat. Row 4. The weather was crummy, a mixture of rain and snow. The next song was one of my all time favorites “I Thank You God (For Most This Amazing Day) a poem originally by EE Cummings rearranged by Gwyneth Walker. Leave this article for a minute to open a new tab and listen to any choir’s rendition of this piece. You won’t regret this. Anyway, I really hated this song at the moment. It was not “easy.” Serious chord inversions, tricky time signatures, high notes even for an Alto 1, and It just wasn’t my groggy-Tuesday-morning cup of tea.
It took listening without singing, just fooling my teacher and lip syncing, really listening to the way the piece “danced,” for me to understand the meaning of the text. The soprano parts weaved into the altos' melody and the chords ringed like clusters in my ears. Then hearing “for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes… I thank you God” was like the composer took a snapshot of what it truly meant to be magnificent and humble all at once. The composer showed what it meant to be a human and unlike God.
It took listening to it to appreciate the magic in the message. And then it took coming in at “how should any human being doubt You” for me to realize my subtle yet important part in this “choir” called life. Really, to be at The Fame School is an honor in itself, just like being able to breathe is a gift from God.
My eyes drifted to the silhouette at the door. Tall, slender, with another much smaller body. I stare in surprise as Will Smith causally listens in with Willow, his daughter. The room got hyper. We did not know how to react, really. Some giggled, some sang louder, some just flat out stopped moving their mouth. I was within ten feet of two celebrities. I was within ten feet of celebrities who were listening to our piece and was experiencing the same magic. It was as if they felt the humility of the piece too.
Wherever I go, I take this memory with me and it keeps me sane. We are unlike God. No one can compare, not even the celebrities we sometimes idolize. To simply be where we are at any given moment is magical in the sense that where we are is always exactly where we are meant to be. Who we are is always exactly who we are supposed to be. It has already been God’s will (no pun intended). It is always good to stop and listen and just experience the music of the life given to us all. Just as life comes, it leaves, and the only similarities we truly share with anyone anywhere and at anytime is that we cannot be infinite. We will soon die. That is humbling in itself.
