COMMENTARY: Musicians Embracing the Flip Side of Fear

c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Standing nervously before a large audience, teenager Ryan McLaughlin wiped hands on trousers, put viola to chin, steadied himself and launched into a magnificent solo in a concerto by Carl Stamitz. Later soloists of the Duke University String School braved equally challenging works by composers like Wieniawski and Lalo. […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Standing nervously before a large audience, teenager Ryan McLaughlin wiped hands on trousers, put viola to chin, steadied himself and launched into a magnificent solo in a concerto by Carl Stamitz.

Later soloists of the Duke University String School braved equally challenging works by composers like Wieniawski and Lalo.


Some 150 young musicians _ ranging from tiny to tall, from every ethnic origin _ stamped their feet for colleagues making solo debuts and turned to works ranging from a Vivaldi concerto to Dvorak’s 9th Symphony, which director Dorothy Kitchen called “one of the most difficult pieces in all orchestral literature.”

As I watched my son chat amiably with his stand partner _ East-West differences mattering less than Brahms _ I said to my wife, “This is the other side.”

The other side of what? The other side of fear. In a culture that is paralyzed by fears _ some manipulated by power-seekers _ these young men and women pushed beyond fear of challenge, fear of failure, fear of immigration, fear of diversity, fear of change, fear of the unknown other.

Consider the fear of immigration that has a “melting pot” nation founded by waves of immigrants considering a wall along its southern border to keep out the next wave of “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” On the Duke stage I saw the glory of nearly 400 years of American immigration.

Consider fear of homosexuality, which has sent legions to the Book of Leviticus for a single verse that turns their fear into the alleged will of God. On the Duke stage, they handed out Saint-Saens, not church newsletters condemning homosexuality.

Consider fear of the female, one of humankind’s most enduring fears, which looks for any opportunity to restrain women’s freedom, from taking away the right of Southern Baptist women to spend their own missionary funds to denying women the right to control their bodies, all based on the thin authority of selectively read Scriptures. On the Duke stage, they produced music, not gender warfare.

Consider fear of the unknown enemy, whose ominous and overstated danger enables Washington power-seekers to chip away at basic freedoms. Who was on this Duke stage? Peoples once portrayed as enemies: Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Eastern Europeans, English, Germans, Irish, Mexicans and Muslims. Not afraid of each other.


Consider fear of change, challenge and failure _ those roller-coaster rides that entrepreneurs and young musicians embrace, but other forces discourage by labeling change as unnecessary, challenge as unfair, and failure as a permanent stain on one’s resume. On this stage, and in the countless hours of practice, lessons and rehearsals preceding it, children did what many grown-ups have forgotten how to do: try the new and push through failure.

Jesus said we need not be afraid. Of course, Jesus also said we should give away our wealth and welcome outcasts into our midst. There is, however, no profit in courage, no political power in discernment, and no church-building in forming circles of loving neighbors, as Jesus did.

Politicians know that people are most malleable when afraid and, inevitably, angry. When one enemy vanishes, find another. When information undercuts fears, banish information. Drive people indoors with passive entertainment and then sell them security systems and armaments. How do you build a church nowadays? Tell people they are better than others, point out which low-lifes to hate, and make sure the doors are barred against them.

This Duke stage wasn’t just about music. It was about citizenship that treasures the melting-pot. It was about freedom to be oneself. It was about challenge as necessary and hard work as normative. It was about courage gained through struggle and failure, not phony bravado. It was about people, not products; working as one, not preying on the weak; striving for greatness, not cocooning in safety.

MO/JL END RNS

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, consultant and leader of workshops. His book, “Just Wondering, Jesus: 100 Questions People Want to Ask,” was published by Morehouse Publishing. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C. His Web site is http://www.onajourney.org.)

Editors: To obtain a photo of Tom Ehrich, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.


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