[Dialogue] question to ponder

[McCabe, Diann A]

Three years ago we hosted a South African woman on campus.  She came from a village near Durban, I think.  After being in San Marcos for 2 days she asked, why don't you sing when people gather?  She said, "it's so strange to get together with people and not sing."  I think about that a lot.--Diann McCabe

________________________________
From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net [dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Marge Philbrook [msphilbrook at gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 7:52 AM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] question to ponder

It is my memory that before TV, etc. everyone sang more.  As a family we sang, when we gathered at my grandparents home we sang, they had a old pump organ.  We sang "church" songs that we all knew and songs from the culture as well.  Music was more everyone did it.  In the first world war there were songs: "  What do you do the infantry, you march, you march you march."   "Some day I'm going to murder the buggler, some day their going to find him dead,  I'll amputate his revelle  and step upon it heavily, and spend the rest of my life in bed."  How do you spell revilee?  Then my memory tells me we sang at school whenever there was an assembly, we sang World War II songs.  about the army, the navy, the marines and the air force. And the "movements" of our time sang as well. We always sang in the civil rights movement.  And It's also the story that in South Africa the apartheid movement moved by song across the country.  When there was an event a song would be createad and sung across the country by black people to transfer the news, like on trains, etc. and soon events were known across the country and led to the ending of apartheid gradually.   I think it would be more of a surprise if we didn't sing in the order.  I think singing was one of our wellness exercises although we didn't know it at the time.    I also observe that the current ICA is not singing.


On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 11:48 PM, Nancy Lanphear <nancy at songaia.com<mailto:nancy at songaia.com>> wrote:
Dear Ones,

WHERE DID OUR SINGING AS AN ORDER COME FROM ?  WAS IT THE CHURCH?  WAS IT FROM MOVEMENT BUILDING ACTIVITIES?  One of our Songaians asked that question of us - he had given a tour today and was asked?  Please respond with answers or just your own stories.  I would love to hear from you about a spiritual practice that has opened so many hearts and places of energy, and at times literally kept us alive.

This has been a big week here at Songaia!  The national Cohousing conference is being held in Seattle this year and the executive director lives here.  He has enlisted most of us to contribute in one or many ways during the week.

On Monday night we hosted the International Summit group from the conference which translated into 38 folks from the group at dinner in our common house along with the 30 of us Songaians.  Of course we were our authentic selves and had singing, introductions, a birthday celebration with questions, and a fantastic meal -  a joyful time was had by all.

I led the singing and included Consider Yourself, This Little Light of Mine, and Oh, Mr. Sun and Russian Hymn for the Earth - the first was a song of welcome and the others, in acknowledgement of Summer Solstice and the wonder of gathering as Earthlings.  We ate in honor of communitarians and those who had not yet found themselves enveloped in a welcoming community.

Following the meal we celebrated one member's birthday.  His name is Nartano and as he has been so moved by the ritual around each members birthday, he wanted to share the ritual with our guests.  Fred asked the questions of him and then shared words that recognized Nartano's role in the community.

We closed the evening by singing the Irish Blessing to our guests.  They left with tears and smiles of joy and hope that if we could share the values of our community lifestyle with the world, it would be a more peaceful place to live.

Yesterday, Fred was awarded the Geoph Kozeny Award for a life of communitarian activities.  Our friend Geoph died a year ago with cancer.  Fred was so honored to be the first recipient of the award.

Today, we hosted 40 people who were on a cohousing community bus tour.  They came for lunch and a tour of Songaia.  Again, we sang before lunch, they joined in with great gusto!

Fred continues to be his spirited, wonderfilled self.  The huge limitations of movement and dextarity frustrate him but he keeps finding new ways to type - he now uses his thumbs and a voice activated computer program.  SINGING here at Songaia and at church is a lifeline for him.  Somehow with his breathing capacity greatly diminished, he still sings with joy and twice as many breaths.  At his ALS diagnosis 1 1/2 years ago, he promised me we would still be together to celebrate the journey of the 2 of us and the life of our family. We are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary on July 4th with family and our community.

We are so very grateful to be living in our community of Songaia.  And we are grateful for you,  our spirit community of many years.  Take care and remember that you are all loved,

Nancy



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