May 19, 2011
Watching your neighbor’s children express the best of themselves is one of the great benefits from living in a small community. Not that it doesn’t happen in larger communities, but that in a small community you see all your neighbors’ kids. One elementary, one middle, and one high school in the entire district mean everyone shows up to the yearly Talent Show. For the cost of a gallon or two of gas (Yep, in rural communities where youth come from miles rather than blocks away, folks are paying close attention to their fuel consumption these days.), you can sit down and get in a couple hours of singing and dancing. Such was last night.
Opening with first graders, the night bloomed into an evening of singing and dancing. The support from the audience, many who do not have children in school, was supportive and thunderous. The support of youth to one another, gave many who wondered what they had gotten themselves into—getting up on stage in front of hundreds of folk, was kind and encouraging—so much so that a few who were fearful standing on stage, earlier in the day, were bold in evening performances! By the time the Choir took the stage, care for one another was so unbridled, the Choirs song choice of Hallelujah seemed appropriate.
The evening was a good reminder that for all the struggle, all the fear, all the heartache of taking a chance of putting oneself on life’s stage, and being out there for all the world to see, somewhere, and often not all that far away, there is an hallelujah for all.
© David B. Bell 2011
Chewing the Cud 