At show's end, Mr. Keillor quietly led 18,000 folks in a moving sing along. My wife was deeply blessed by the absolute thrill of singing with her 87 year young mother. From Goodnight Irene, Happy Trails, the Doxology, Swing Low, Falling In Love, to Amen – the two enjoyed a fellowship unique to singing with someone you have loved a lifetime.
Janet was reminded of Mr. Keillor's words on Methodists. Written almost a decade ago, they still strike a chord. He wrote:
We make fun of Methodists for their blandness, their excessive calm, their fear of giving offense, their lack of speed, and also for their secret fondness for macaroni and cheese.
But nobody sings like them. If you were to ask an audience in New York City, a relatively Methodist-less place, to sing along on the chorus of “Michael Row the Boat Ashore,” they will look daggers at you as if you had asked them to strip to their underwear. But if you do this among Methodists, they’d smile and row that boat ashore and up on the beach! And down the road!
Many Methodists are bred from childhood to sing in four-part harmony, a talent that comes from sitting on the lap of someone singing alto or tenor or bass and hearing the harmonic intervals by putting your little head against that person’s rib cage.
It’s natural for Methodists to sing in harmony. We are too modest to be soloists, too worldly to sing in unison. When you’re singing in the key of C and you slide into the A7th and D7th chords, all two hundred of you, it’s an emotionally fulfilling moment. By our joining in harmony, we somehow promise that we will not forsake each other.
