I had a different blog post in mind for this weekend. I was going to write about the iPad & my experiences with it these past few weeks. Yawn.
Instead I want to write about someone who’s lying in a hospital bed tonight, but who is surrounded and hopefully lifted up by the love and prayers of not only his family, but hundreds of members of his extended family.
I spent 5 years singing in a choir led by Johannes Somary and they were some of the happiest times of my life. He seemed to me more like a force of nature than an actual human being at times, so strong was his personality. You always wanted to do your very best for Johannes, because that was what he expected. And he got it.
But what you got out of the work you put in for Johannes was so much more.
I learned not just to love choral music in my years with Johannes, but also about passion, and commitment, and about excellence. And also about leadership, although back then that wasn’t really on my mind.
My thoughts tonight are with him and his family, and hoping that although he is beginning 2011 in a very dark place, that the rest of 2011 will be a much better one for him, because the world without Johannes would be a dimmer, less musical place.
Amen.