Good morning.
Last Sunday I settled into my well-worn wing chair to watch the annual Christmas concert at Gustavus Adolphus College. The school is one of several liberal arts colleges founded by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in the upper Midwest. Gustavus is located in St. Peter, Minnesota, a community of 10,000 about seventy miles southwest of the Twin Cities. Like its
sibling schools, it has a superb music program with four choral groups and eight instrumental ensembles. Lutherans, many of them of German or Scandinavian heritage, like to sing and tend to do it extremely well.
The concert was held in the campus chapel and broadcast on PBS without interruption or applause until the very end. That, right there, was a treat: no commercials for medical products with their delightful side effects that would offensively intrude into a performance with sacred overtones. The program offered a selection of music I had never heard before along with a few traditional carols with lush arrangements to bring on the goose bumps. The Lutheran college choirs always include a performance of Beautiful Savior during their Christmas concerts, and I dare even the most resolute atheist not to weep, particularly during the final measures.
The Gustavus choirs were comprised of perhaps the most attractive people I've seen in a long time. They were a diverse group with better than average looks, but the big thing was that they looked happy. They liked what they were doing and seemed comfortable with themselves in a world where there's an abundance of stress, divisiveness, and either blame assigned to everyone else or crippling self-recrimination. Who knows what was really going on in the private lives of the choir members, but I'd bet the ranch they're in better shape than many people. They're probably also troubled about what they see all around them - not the demographic changes that are taking place but the dogged resistance that has created an atmosphere of such anger. These kids don't deserve the nastiness of the march at Charlottesville, the senseless attacks on schools, churches, and every other venue, the absence of basic civility in American society, and the complete disregard for the truth in everyday life. They're not likely to be planning a future where they scam people to make more money or even fudge a bit on a resume to get a job. They don't strike me as being given to road rage, shoplifting, or any form of harassing or bullying behavior. They will probably do a lot of volunteer work, maybe even in a third-world country, and will help the neighbors with snow removal when they settle into a home. They may duck on getting into politics, however, because of a well-justified fear of being contaminated by the utter lack of integrity that has taken over the governing process at every level. Of course they're the ones who should run for office but there's not enough of them to save us even if they did. Instead we have people who want to dump PBS that broadcast the gorgeous Gustavus concert and throw out a program to help disadvantaged children with their health care. Good Lord.
Best regards and Merry Christmas,
Elisabeth
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