our reply

 (one of my miniature singers)

 "This will be our reply to violence.

 To make music more intensely, 

more beautifully, 

more devotedly than ever before." 

~Leonard Bernstein

I was already a bit verklempt and wrung out yesterday as I had the usual post-concert/adrenaline let down.  But after I started seeing my east coast friends' fb posts, I verged right into weepy. 

All day long I kept seeing the shiny faces of my Pre-K and K classes as they joyfully stood in the spotlights and belted out:

tu-re-lu-re-lu

pat-a-pat-a-pan

when you play your fife and drum

how can anyone be glum?

(I allowed the 6th grade free dress for the concert and I was impressed by how sophisticated they were--fedora, beautiful ties and skirts for the ladies!)

While I can grasp the ideology and xenophobia of terrorism and can catch a glimmer of empathy for high school students who react against their classmates, there is no understanding of a mind that simply guns down little people.  These weren't even collateral damage in a bombing, or such.  Just shot.

And always on the edge of my consciousness is the fact that this could easily happen at any campus where I work.  Many of my classrooms have been equipped with panic buttons and we have 'shelter in place' drills for this kind of horror. 

I truly hope that I never have to face a parent and tell them any variation to the story which is unfolding in Connecticut tonight. 

For tonight, I will remember audience faces on Thursday night, streaming tears as 300+ voices surrounded them with  Dona Nobis Pacem  and Stille Nacht.  

Bernstein's answer is the one for me.