Glimpses of God - Day Thirty-Six

One of the most moving viral videos I have seen on the internet was a collection of fans singing the Cranberries song 'Zombie' after the funeral of singer Dolores O'Riordan - people in pubs all over Dublin joined in singing together to pay their respects and it was genuinely beautiful. I couldn't find that video when writing this post so here is another version, by Brisbane's Pub Choir - over 500 people singing together:

When I was attending some lectures on Post Modernity, about thirty years ago in London, England, I remember the lecturer reflecting on things which modern society was lamenting, and one of them was communal singing - apart from Football (Soccer) games, there were few places where communities gathered to sing as they once used to - the days of gathering round a piano in the pub, or at grandma's house were fading. Usually the only places still offering the experience as a matter of course were churches. 

Since then there has been a resurgence of choirs, and group sings, and flash mob choirs and more. Here in Victoria there are a number of community choirs which have a wide and varied repetoire, as well as church choirs, and other professional and semi-professional singing groups. 

I think that singing together, sharing breath (con-spiring), and feeling the music, takes us out of ourselves and uplifts us, it's a way of encountering the Divine in ourselves and one another. 

Isaiah 42.10-12

Sing to the Lord a new song,
   his praise from the end of the earth!
Let the sea roar and all that fills it,
   the coastlands and their inhabitants.
Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice,
   the villages that Kedar inhabits;
let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy,
   let them shout from the tops of the mountains.
Let them give glory to the Lord,
   and declare his praise in the coastlands.