When I was in sixth grade I was in a choir, and incredibly absorbed in the songs.  Until one day the choirmaster stopped next to me and listened – and decided that I was the one who was throwing the whole choir off.   I remember every song by heart, especially the last song I got to sing before I was thrown out.  And today I kept singing it to myself:

When you walk through a storm

hold your head up high

and don’t be afraid of the dark

At the end of the storm is a golden sky

and the sweet silver song of a lark.

walk on through the wind walk on through the rain

though your dreams be tossed and blown

walk on walk on with hope in your heart

and you’ll never walk alone

And here’s Elvis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=7NurYDwKZ9g

I AM NOT GOING TO LET A COUPLE OF AUTOCRATS RUN MY LIFE

The song, in Rogers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, came out near the end of WWII, the month I was born, and must have been a great comfort to many people.  I never thought of it as religious, but social.  At the end of the play the whole cast comes out and sings it, and it always reminds me of how so many people in despair were comforted after the war by the company of others.  And today too I feel comfort in the sharing of hope with others.

But I’ll never get over not being able to sing.