Whose are we?

The following is excerpted from a sermon I heard at church on Sunday titled “Whose are we?” The first answer was “We belong to the universe” which is good with me! But in hearing the second answer (of three) I was struck by how relevant the words were to the choral experience. I’ve been reflecting for some time now on the idea that the arts are where we get to practice our humanity, thus choir is a place to practice, among other things, community and society. With that in mind as the framework from which I heard this sermon, here are the words of the Rev. Elizabeth Stevens from the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse:

Whose are we? The second answer that works for me is that I am yours, and you are mine. We
belong to one another; we are bound in community.
The culture is trying to convince us that we don’t need each other. Instead, we need things. We
need to buy things. We need to consume things. We need to distract ourselves with
entertainment and devices and other addictions.
That’s a lie.
Human beings didn’t evolve to exist in isolation. We are biologically tribal omnivores. Which
means that today’s trends toward greater and greater loneliness has huge implications for our
spiritual, emotional, and physical health. When we lean into our need for one another, we
become stronger, more joyful, and more whole.
Not that community is easy. Quite the contrary. It’s messy and challenging. All those
competing needs! All those clashing cultures! We need to bring a lot of grace to our
relationships and our communities. There needs to be plenty of room for mistakes, frustrations,
apologies, and forgiveness. We have to make peace, over and over again, with the fact that each
of us has control over exactly one person’s behavior…our own.

Sound familiar? It sure did to me! And does it seem to resonate with the idea that choir is a place to practice community? Absolutely! If there’s one thing a choir is, it’s messy and challenging, with competing needs and clashing cultures! But in learning, through choral music, how to respect people, meet and prioritize needs, and unify ourselves, not by discarding our differences, but by allowing everyone’s uniqueness to inform the greater goal of the community, we have practiced a society that I, personally, would love to live in!

I love Rev. Elizabeth’s way in, which is to acknowledge that when we enter into community, we belong to each other. This ties in so wonderfully with the idea of coming to choir ready to serve each other and serve the music. If I come to choir and belong only to myself, then I am isolated and a slave to my ego. But if I come to choir and belong to every other person in the room, then I can freely serve the needs of the community by sharing my strengths and weaknesses, and we can transcend the limits of self-service and ego and create something that none of us could create alone.

How do we create this sense of belonging in choir? Well, that’s easier said than done. For me, it starts with striving to live the idea. As a conductor, I think of my role as being one of leading through example. If I come to choir ready to meet the needs of everyone else in the room, through scholarship, preparation, score study, etc. then I am modeling the idea that I am my best self when I am ready lead through an attitude of service. I think the next step is to create an environment where others in the choir have the opportunity to practice the same idea. A lot of what I find myself writing about in this blog is related to creating those circumstances( for example THIS POST on micro-interactions, and THIS POST on language). But every choir is different, and every conductor is different, and the challenge is to find ways to be honest and authentic to yourself and your ensemble in the way that you are able to belong to each other.

Have ideas on belonging, community, and society? Have ways that you practice modeling community in your choirs? Please share below!