June 22. General Assembly

Yesterday was all about learning and thinking, today (mostly) was about music.

Making Music Together: Musical Ways to Build Your Community with Kellie Walker
Kellie had a great presentation of songs you can sing as a congregation and also ways to get non-singers singing. I realized a drawback of attending a large congregation while attending this lecture. We have three adult choirs. There is little need to press any non-singers (like me: an enthusiastic singer with no choir training) into singing, aside from normal hymn singing during church. She talked about a "come as you are" band her church has at Christmas where whoever digs up their instrument and brings it along to play. They also have a special mother's day choir made up of mothers and daughters, and also a father's day choir. I love the music at our church, but this was a wake up call that perhaps other churches have wonderful music too. But in a different way.


This Is My Song? Reflections on Cultural Misappropriation.
This was a somewhat confusing panel discussion that was partly the report of the committee that met after the "incident" at the 2006 GA. I didn't really get what the incident was and why it was such a big deal that they needed to convene a panel to meet several times over the year and discuss. This was a major failing and had me confused. What I did get was that when you use music (or anything, really) in a public realm, you had better know the provenience of it, and the proper way to use it.

What in God's Name Am I Doing? Robert Fulghum
My only goal was to see this program. And luckily for me, my friend Kelly saved seats so I did get to see it. Robert Fulghum was my introduction to Unitarian Universalism, though I didn't really realize it at the time. He is 70 now, and was dressed in a sport coat and bow tie. He gave us a PowerPoint presentation in which we had to use the power of our brains to see the slides he was "showing" us. A big part of his presentation was about how the things your mother used to say to you, such as, "What in god's name are you doing?" really become questions you ask yourself throughout your life. I marvel at how he can tie so much to his stories.

Let's Make Music--Anyone Can. Melodie Feather, Ellie Hodder
Another music program. We got to divide into five sections and spend ten minutes learning our parts. Then we came back together and performed. It was much fun and a nice way to end the day.