I had an interesting experience this AM. I think this thread made me think about it differently than I might have otherwise. So, come with me to the place where the decisions can actually occur, if we are intentional about what we do with the music we put out into our world.....

I'm putting together the secular material we will use in August for a public (family) singalong at a town's "Old Home Days." It's a community that really needs music. I'm going through all the old binders to see what we have. I find one binder that's mixed gospel and folk. Oy! "Kids Under Construction" is perfect-- oh no, in one verse it mentions the LORD. Include it or not? Suddenly, the shoe we've been talking about in this thread is on my other foot--

So I'm sitting there thinking, what's my JOB? My job (in that singalong) is to reach out to what is universal, or as nearly so as I can approximate... to build community in that sad little town that so lacks it, by setting out the commonalities with the most elegant community builder I know-- music. In THAT context, "Lord" has to come out, no two ways about it. A minor rewrite and I'm in business.

Then I started to reflect on this thread, and I began to realize that it's so precious to have the capacity, as a human being, to be intentional about what we do, especially with our music. So again, there is the fresh realization that what we can do in the situation of a song circle (where religion can become a sticky issue), is follow what we believe, and look to our own responsibility instead of to what we think someone else ought to be doing. And it made me grateful that so many people here at Mudcat ARE intentional about what they do with music-- it's really not so easy to do that.

In our monthly jam, I have often found myself with little or no secular material ready to roll out in the jam. What I've done is explain that mostly what I play is gospel, and I ask if anyone will be offended if that's what I play in my turn. Then I pick a piece suitable to the occasion-- an old-fashioned mountain-gosple classic, for instance, or a spiritual. NOT a salvation-plea song. I've never had an objection, and we've never seen a jam where gospel took over, either. A little respect goes a long way.

~Susan