Close to
Nowhere
By Linda Jones
Music? Maybe
I’ve
often heard my mother-in-law laughing about when her son,
my husband “Pop” was a child and he learned to
“sing.”
One of their
neighbors was his kindergarten teacher and he adored her.
And she adored opera. So, Pop learned to “sing”
opera. He was a child though, so surely, it was cute.
Well, maybe.
Our granddaughters have finally(!) outgrown “Veggie
Tales” and progressed on to other music.
Maybe
that’s good. Maybe. It can also be hard on the
eardrums.
The girls,
their friend Grace, their mom, their uncle and I all
trooped out several weeks ago to see “The Phantom of
the Opera.” (Wonderful movie, I highly recommend
it.)
The baby
girls also liked it, as well as loving the music. Which
meant we had to get the CD; which means we listen to it
in the car constantly.
Grace spent
last weekend at our house and went to church with us
Sunday morning. As we drove, to and from church,
naturally, we listened to “The Phantom.”
Sometimes,
you just don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Those
three girls sat in the back and sang with absolute joy
and abandon, even the highest notes of some of that
music. And since the lead female soprano is a very high
soprano, some of those notes got way up there — and
so did the voices in the back seat.
To my very
untrained ear, the voices in the back seat sound pretty
good too. Sometimes. They were at least in harmony.
My friend
Jane and I have always wanted to sing and dance. She
wants to stand in the spotlight, alone on a stage, and
sing (she does have a nice voice). I’ve always
wanted to be a ballerina.
Listening to
the little voices in the back seat makes me think of
Jane. I can see her standing in the spotlight, singing
those soaring, beautiful notes (she’s good, but
actually, she’s not quite that good). I can also see
me, in a floaty ballerina outfit, dancing beautifully
around the stage to those same wonderful notes (we
won’t even talk about if I’m good or not).
That’s
about when I stop, shake my head, laugh and thank
goodness the two or three voices in the back seat sound
as good and as happy as they do.
“Music
hath charms to soothe the savage breast, To soften rocks,
or bend a knotted oak.” William Congreve —
“The Mourning Bride.” (He’s also the one
who wrote “Hell hath no fury like a woman
scorned” —same play.)
Music does
have charms. And I’ve think that whether it’s
Veggie Tales or Phantom of the Opera, the voices in my
back seat, singing with such joy and happy abandon, can
charm just about anything.
And it sure
makes the morning ride to school and work a lot more
interesting!
Report News:
(662) 252-4261 or south@dixie-net.com
Questions, comments, corrections: south@dixie-net.com
©2004, The
South Reporter, All Rights Reserved.
No part of this site may be reproduced in any way without
permission.
The South Reporter is a member of the Mississippi Press
Association.
Web Site
managed and maintained by
South Reporter webmasters Linda Jones, Kristian Jones
Web Site Design - The South Reporter
Back | Top of Page
|
