[Oe List ...] A Story

[Priscilla H. Wilson]

On Sunday afternoon, our choir, brass, organ and bells participated in 
a hymn festival with the congregation, "Called to Sing the Song of 
Hope." The hour hymn fest ended with our pastor reading the story I 
have printed below, "the Cellist of Sarajevo." It was very moving...and 
was followed by a cello solo. I am just sending it because I wanted to 
share it with my friends and colleagues.
Priscilla

A hundred yards away lived a 37-year-old man named Vedran Smailovic. 
Before the war he had been the principal cellist of the Sarajevo Opera 
Company--a distinguished and civilized job, no doubt. When he saw the 
massacre outside his window, he was pushed beyond his capacity to 
endure anymore. Driven by his anguish, he decided he had to take 
action, and so he did the only thing he could do. He made music. Every 
day there after, at 4 p.m. precisely, Mr. Smailovic would put on his 
full formal concert attire, and walk out of his apartment into the 
midst of the battle raging around him. He would place a little 
campstool in the middle of the bomb-craters, and play a concert to the 
abandoned streets, while bombs dropped and bullets flew all around him. 
Day after day he made his unimaginably courageous stand for human 
dignity, for civilization, for compassion, and for peace. As though 
protected by a divine shield, he was never hurt, though his darkest 
hour came when, taking a little walk to stretch his legs, his cello was 
shelled and destroyed where he had been sitting.

	He played….It was just music
		But in that music declared that warfare--
		No matter what virtues war wears as a costume--
		Warfare cannot win;
It was music that sang
		inhumanity will not destroy that which is human,
		That which is truly alive.
	Day after day after day
He played his cello in the crater.  (22 days for the 22 deaths)
It was just music.
But it was prayer,
And it was hope,
And it was a sign that
Hope is stronger than fear.
And good is stronger than evil,
And life is stronger than death,
And no act of inhumanity can completely destroy
The God-given gift of being human.
I don’t know what melody he played.
	But I’m sure it was the same melody sung by the hungry in line for 
soup.
	I’m sure it was the same song sung by children praying for the end of 
war.
	I’m sure it was the same hummed in Jerusalem and in Ramallah, in Sudan 
and countless other places.
	I’m sure it is the same that leaps from our hearts as we seek to lift 
up that which is human.

  It was 4:00 so Vedran Smailovic played the cello.
It was just music.

*****************************
Priscilla Wilson
TeamTech Press
Mission Hills, KS 66208
913-432-2107
pwilson at teamtechinc.com