Fairy Dust

Right and wrong. Ah, there’s a conversation. The path to discovering what’s right in this world walks hand-in-hand with our sense of what’s wrong. The talk between the two is constant and always shifting and we need to be careful about which gets more floor time. It doesn’t take much before the litany of what’s wrong turns into whining and constant complaint and the sense from others that it’s a drag to be around the negative Nancy in the crowd. Likewise, the sunny Pollyanna who thinks everything is awesome and amazing might just be ignoring some of the shadows that keep evil and injustice in business. 

 

After my posts about Religious Trauma, I read the next chapter in Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste and felt compelled to share yet another of her deep insights—the stark contrast between how Germany deals with its Nazi past and how the U.S. deals with its legacy of slavery. This is important information and the kind of muddy path of Wrongs we need to slog through before reaching any path leading to Right.  I believe this is worth posting and worth reading and worthy of reflection. Stay tuned.

 

Meanwhile, I just returned from singing with some 60 k-2^nd graders at yet another school (my 6^th school in the past month) and that was about as Right as you can get. My only complaint? The allotted 35 minutes whizzed by too fast and we only got to sing six of the twelve songs I hoped we would. I suggested that I come back again and there was a palpable YES!! from kids and teachers alike. A group of kids, a guitar and me is enough for a quick trip to heaven on earth and this was especially poignant because the parent who invited me was a former student of mine at The San Francisco School who wanted her kindergarten son to experience what she did. She got off work to attend, testified that she knew every song I sang and sat so happily with her son on her lap singing them. Like I said, heaven on earth.

 

On writing these words, I recall many years back singing with some 100 plus kids in a lovely room in Scotland and that one lasted over an hour. When I reluctantly ended, I began to pack up and five minutes later, one of the teachers told me that one of the kids said to her in a hushed reverent tone:

 

“That man was magical.”

 

I suspected he felt the beauty and energy of people gathered to sing together and it opened his heart in a way that singing can do. But there was more to the story. The teacher asked:

 

“Why do you think that?”

 

“Because while he was singing, I saw some fairy dust around his head.”

 

It turned out that a shaft of light came into the room illuminating dust the way it does. This little boy noticed it and connected it to the energy in the room and came to the inevitable conclusion— there was magic in the air.

 

Today I go off to another school to sing to two more classes. Let’s see if the fairy dust appears.