I just spent several days at the Met.  Yeah, that’s right, the Metropolitan Opera in New York.  I go to learn about opera in an intense 3 day professional development with the cream of the crop.  People who specialize in things I didn’t even know existed.  People who have created their own careers by following their passions.  But I digress.  I do this so that I can bring the information and activities back home to my students so that they can experience this amazing genre of music.  And yet, somehow I came out of this experience with so much more. Several jewels that I am going to try to share with you from my perspective.     

Collapsible Space.  The circle of adults, numbering about 100, stood shoulder to shoulder in the large rehearsal room, deep in the bowels of the opera house.  Worn out multi-colored tape criss-crossed the  wood floors, worn by years of rehearsals. It was the culmination of 3 days of intense professional development, a time when we laughed and cried, debated and shared, as we learned more about this genre of music.  

It was a time of fulfilling something on my bucket list, the opportunity to see Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, live on the stage of the Met.  It doesn’t get any better than that, right?  And yet I walked out disappointed, the reasons hard to express but a feeling that was shared by others at various times during the conference.  Expressed again as we stood in that wide open, vulnerable circle.

A colleague brought up his concern that Porgy and Bess was an option for his students and now after seeing it, he didn’t know how he was going to share it with them.  The opera addresses promiscuity, physical and substance abuse and murder, with the disturbing message that violence is what makes a man a man.  These are things that touch his students in real life – how was he going to let them see this opera?  Another person had shared her concerns as well, having replaced an African American gentleman who has passed away at her school.  How was this self described “quirky white woman” going to relate to her African American students?  Her fear and concern had moved her to tears.  Both of these people were reassured by our African American colleagues in the room, letting them know that their students would know how much they cared about them and that would be enough.  In the circle, an African American woman walked the width of the circle to embrace the white man who was at a loss as to what he should do to help his students.  Another African American woman shared her story of a lifetime of judgement because of her skin color. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as there were a few more hugs and some applause for everyone’s brutal honesty.  

No two people see things the same way.  That means that no matter how much we try to align ourselves with others we believe see things the same way we do, we will never think exactly the same as someone else.  There will always be differences.  However, what we CAN do is CHANGE the way we look at things, and the things we look at change.  Read that again.  Looking at something from another perspective puts an interesting spin on how you may have perceived it.  So how do we change how we look at things?  By listening to stories.  Why do stories matter and why are you and I telling them?  

Stories keep us alive.  Stories inspire us, they show us how things really are or how they could be.  When we arrived at our professional development, one of our first exercises was to share something that had happened to us in the past year.  Just a tiny short story.  One of the women who has been attending for years shared that she had earned her doctorate this year WHILE she was still working and she was now DR. Ruthie.  Ruthie’s story intrigued me because I knew she was not your traditional student.  So, later I approached her and told her I had a tacky question to ask her.  When she said go ahead, I asked how old she was.  “63, she said, and I did it in three years.  That means she started at 60.  Wait a minute – I’M 60.  This CAN be done.  I shared that I want to go back and work on mine as well and she sent me off with an encouraging “go for it!”.  Stories make a difference and show us we have the power to do the seemingly impossible.  

Art is a vehicle for reconciliation.   Honest, difficult conversation is possible.  Reconciliation is possible.  Peace is possible.  Nuff’ said.

Do whatever makes you feel alive, following little steps to amazing adventures.  Look, very seldom do we step directly into some major adventure in our lives.  What usually happens is a series of little steps that eventually leads us to our greatest adventures.  The reason I have this opportunity at the Met is the result of  little steps.  I was recommended by a friend I had met through another organization.  I was a leader in that organization because someone else asked if I would run for office.  That person asked me because he saw my work in an appointed position with that organization.  The person who appointed me was someone I asked to do a professional development session for me and he saw my passion for music education.   This process began about 15 years ago.  I am well aware that it is not what you know but who you know.  But I’ve also become keenly aware of the fact that you have to say yes to the little adventures or none of this happens.  These are the things that excite me, the things that make me feel alive, that give me purpose, that supply the jewels that I am to share with others, like you.  Go ahead.  Have adventures.  And bring back some jewels of your own.