Singing

When my youngest son was in fourth or fifth grade he was suspended from school for fighting. I took three days off work because I didn’t have anyone who could keep him. More importantly, I wanted to teach him a lesson he would remember.

It was December and he was old enough that he knew I was Santa Claus. I took his game boy away from him and cancelled all TV for him. I made him cut the grass with the push mower, took him to the church and had him vacuum and mop it and he cleaned the house. The whole time he was working, I walked behind him and sang “There goes Santa Claus, There goes Santa Clause right down suspension lane” to the tune of the Christmas song “Here comes Santa Claus.”

I’ve often joked about being a professional singer. People pay me not to sing. I have been kicked out of every choir I’ve joined. When I took voice in college, the stunned professors who listened to my voice jury debated and decided to give me a “D” on the condition that I would not take another music course. They told me that everyone has a talent, mine wasn’t in music, and that I should start looking for my talent.

After three days of working and listening to me sing, Charlie turned and looked at me with tears streaming down his face. “Mama, I promise not to get suspended again if you won’t sing to me anymore.”

I had made an impression on him. He had to follow civil behavior. He could not enter into brawls and call names just because he was mad and disagreed with someone.

When I listen to some political commentators, I feel like singing to them. They are mean to people who disagree with them. There is great effort placed on creating a sensational news story and generating anger little effort placed on conflict resolution. Through the use of radio and television, they create a public enemy of all opposition and use people’s fears to gain a power base.

I believe the American public deserves more and I also believe that we want more. Democracy is based on consensus building. We cannot always have what we want, but together we build something that we can all live with. The right keeps us from changing too fast, the left stirs our conscious. Going too far right or too far left is dangerous. It is in the middle that we create greatness.