"We Belong to One Another"

Sometimes music says so beautifully what we try so hard to say in ordinary words.

Take my recent post in this section on the importance of interfaith understanding.

I went on and on about it as I remember.

So this weekend I'm listening to my daughter's choir, along with another local high school choir,... ...perform a song that had been commissioned for the regional conferences of the National American Choral Directors' Association and suddenly I realize...that's it! That's what I meant to say!

By the way, that's my girl. Front and center.

The piece is called All Works of Love. It was written by Joan Szymko. The text is deceptively simple: two short quotes from Mother Teresa joined by the word, "remember," which was added by the composer.

If we have no peace

It is because we have forgotten that

We belong to one another.

Remember

All works of love are works of peace.

I just can't get that line out of my head: we belong to one another.

We belong to one another.

Those few lines were set to the most glorious music. And they were repeated over and over and woven within each other. If I were musical the way my kids are I could explain this much better. All I know is that it was masterfully done. And there were times the piece was so powerful I forgot to breath.

The composer's task when accepting this commission was to create a "sacred work." According to the program, the composer chose a text that was universal, recognizing that compassion is a shared virtue in all faiths. The program reads: "The Dalai Lama has said: 'Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.'"

I remember writing not long ago that if people of different faiths didn't learn to work together there was no hope for humanity.

I did not write it as musically as the composer did.

Indeed, "We belong to one another."