I just watched the Les Miserables performance on the Oscar and I was amazed by all the people who I never thought of as singers. Actors, yes. Singers, no. As an aside, Russell Crowe was not one of them as my friend Kathleen dragged my sorry ass to Philadelphia once to see his band.
Many years ago I saw the architect Bill McDonough speak. If you don't know who he is, google him. He's pretty rockin'. One of the things that he said that really stuck with me was that if you ask a group of kindergarteners if they can sing, they will not only all say yes but they will offer to sing you a song. But if you go back to the same group of kids 10 years later, for the most part, they will say that they cannot sing. His point was that somewhere along the line we were teaching children what they cannot do rather than what they can.
The performance tonight reminded me of that. We all have the physical ability to sing but for the most part, we don't. We talk without ever worrying about what our speaking voice sounds like but we are so very shy (unless there is alcohol involved) about singing.
Last night we went to Brian's cousin's house. Around 9 o'clock, much to my surprise, they turned on the karaoke machine. And everyone sang. We sang Beatles songs and Lou Reed and everything in between. Bob and I sang "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"--he was Elton John and I was George Michael just so I could say that big, loud "Ladies and Gentlemen Mr. Elton John".
Today, I couldn't stop singing. I sang "The Witchita Line Man". I sang "Bang Bang". I sang AC/DC, Tanya Tucker, Kiss, and everything in between.
A long time ago at the end of a long night, I sang Amazing Grace for some friends. I sang it with no shame and no worries. And it was so beautiful. A few months ago, I sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" for Brian. And he thought it was beautiful.
So lets "forget your troubles and just get happy" and just for a few minutes, sing like you are an Oscar winner.
What will you sing?
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