Blog Your Blessings: Music

I was in one of my usual spots on Tuesday as the president's inauguration unfolded--behind the wheel of my VW Jetta heading for the house. Though I was a bit frustrated that highway construction and traffic kept me from watching all of the event, it seemed to me at the time that this extraordinary, ordinary moment should take place for me where I always am anyway. So I accepted the traffic until I pulled into my garage--and then I ran like a mad woman to see what there was to see on TV, unlacing my boots even as I ran for the house. I wanted all of it.

Happily, I caught the performance of John Williams's arrangement of "Air and Simple Gifts" featuring Itzhak Perlman, Yo Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGill. Here are the lyrics:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come round right.

That was for me the day. In fact, if I had to distill President Obama's inaugural speech into eight lines, these would do the job.

While the US Navy Sea Chanters concluded the ceremony by singing the National Anthem, I had the heart-warmingly obvious realization that the music of the day was familiar to me: "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," "Simple Gifts," and the Anthem. I sang the three of them (quietly so as not to offend the guinea pig in my lap). I knew these songs. These were my songs. I grew up singing them, standing for them, saluting the flag with them, and saying "amen" in my heart at the close of each one every time. "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" always followed the Pledge in elementary school. "Simple Gifts" was a church song that made the program every time we got simple, back to nature, or folksy. The Anthem is pervasive--I hear it at sports events, school events, on patriotic holidays. Like everything else about the day, it was as ordinary as it was extraordinary. And beautiful.

They are three sweet songs about being here and gladly calling you neighbor, that we are connected by this shared music even when we are all alone struggling to get our boots off. Extraordinary and ordinary, alone yet not at all alone. We know the story. It's ours. And it's beautiful in its utter simplicity.

Blog Your Blessings