Once upon a time, my voice teacher gave me a tip about stage fright. She said there is bound to be at least one person in the audience who wishes you well and looks friendly. Focus on that person.

Now, the week before last, I was singing and looking for that person, and I realized to my dismay that most of the faces I saw were not people, but photographs. I suppose they were people who didn't want to listen to others, just to sing themselves. So they ambled off to walk the dog or balance their checkbook, leaving their lifeless picture in their place. Pfui.

Last Monday, I am happy to say, there were many more live people in place, and I felt better about singing my song. Keep up the good work, everybody.