[Oe List ...] A Story

[Charles or Doris Hahn]

Thanks for sending that story, Priscilla. I heard it
read over NPR one afternoon several years ago while I
was driving, but missed the source. Do you know what
the source is? It's a wonder-filled story.
Doris Hahn

--- "Priscilla H. Wilson" <pwilson at teamtechinc.com>
wrote:

> 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
>
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