Restoring Spirits

Last week was one of the most enjoyable I can recall. In the elegant surroundings of Princeton, I was part of a wonderful choir of sixty-five, rehearsing and performing the six major Bach motets under the direction of Dr. Joe Miller and his colleagues. We sang most of the day, and we all loved every minute. I have a blessed life, and my mood was good even before the week, but had I needed a tonic this would have been the perfect way to restore my spirits.

Much of the joy arose from the singing itself, and particularly from singing Bach. His music is so well-written and the Baroque style so healthy that most of us could have sung ten hours per day instead of just five, and repeated the program after each performance. I have found on a wonderful major hobby, hopefully one that I can still develop and enjoy for many more years. I owe a big debt of thanks to Charlie back in The Hague for setting me on a more determined path of voice development, to Mikae and subsequent teachers, and to directors like Joe Miller who have helped me discover new joy.

Bach was an intensely religious man, and much of his music invoked the Christian Trinity. The Holy Spirit he generally portrays with fast, running passages of notes. Sometimes these passages are mysterious, but more often wild and joyful, showing how the Spirit spreads its benefits through humanity. Most of the motets are full of such passages, usually in triple meter, many lasting over several minutes and developing to joyful climaxes as the many voice parts weave complex patterns. The image of classical music can be staid and dry, but these Bach motets are quite the opposite. As Dr. Miller said in one of his introductions, they might comprise the most joyful music ever composed, in any genre.

The audiences were certainly entranced and caught up in the joy and the spirit. The predominantly young choir were especially demonstrative, with faces full of life and bodies swaying with the dance rhythms, and the audience often found themselves swaying in response. One of the motets starts with the text “Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf”, or “The Spirit helps us in our weakness”. Bach brings that spirit alive, and shows how it can help us. The Spirit is the horizontal element of the Trinity – whereas Father and Son are about our individual connection to the Almighty, the Spirit is how we connect together as humans, pulling each other to greater heights and small miracles, just like last week.

And indeed, much though Bach and Joe Miller contributed to my restored spirits, the greater part was played by the rest of the group. Of the sixty five of us, I would guess that over fifty were in their twenties, and there is something about that generation that always impresses me so much and gives me such optimism for humanity.

I first noticed about ten years ago, in Shell, that somehow a number of kids were coming out of college with a greater maturity than before. They were comfortable in their own skin, respectful of everyone around them, grounded and balanced, and a pleasure to be with. Since then, every occasion I’ve been exposed to that generation I have been more and more impressed.

The same happened this week. Those fifty kids were a sheer pleasure to be around. Each of them seemed at ease with their own body and mind and with each other. I witnessed nothing that could be seen as bullying or arrogant. Everyone respected each other, respected the group discipline and even respected Bach. It was a week full of smiles and laughter as well as curiosity and learning and support. While I kept myself at some distance outside the organised sessions, preferring to rest and sensing that many of the group wanted to spend their free times in reunions with friends rather than meeting strangers, simply observing was enough to be uplifting to the spirit.

Whenever I eulogise today’s youth, cynics point out that I am not seeing a balanced sample, but only witnessing the elite. I accept this. I can’t really say what a group of fifty kids from Mali would be like, or even a group from Baltimore. But that doesn’t stop me celebrating what I see. And the group this week are not exceptionally privileged – they have chosen a career where most will struggle to earn enough to buy houses and where they’ll face classrooms of unruly middle school kids for many years. True, the group was suspiciously white, and might include a number who enjoy parental support.

But my comparator groups are elite too. I look back on my time at college and just after, and the people in my peer groups then. Many of us had no idea how to be relaxed with the opposite gender, leave alone more complex sexualities. We had narrow minds and limited world-views. We often treated each other thoughtlessly, especially anyone different.

I am convinced that this generation will achieve great things. Just like the passages of Bach’s sixteenth notes, there will be downs as well as ups, missteps as well as triumphs, but overall humanity can only move forwards with this group at the helm. My belief is that succeeding generations in Baltimore and Mali are stronger too, despite what we may see in headlines. Humanity is moving forward, generation by generation, at an accelerating rate.

This conjures up another emotion in me – one of pride for my own generation. True, when I tuned in to the hate and ignorance of the Republican convention at one point during the serene week, the contrast was jarring, and my lot are certainly making a mess of many macro things in politics and economics.

But look more deeply and you can see that the spirit usually works positively. Consider the advances in medicine, psychology, science or technology, and how they have contributed to the next generation’s development, especially in how they have impacted the social climate. Above all, my generation can take pride on having been better parents than our own parents were to us. And I can only wonder at what fantastic parents my Princeton choir will become, and the potential results for their own kids.

So I can offer you three ways to restore your own spirits. One is hard, one in the middle and one as easy as breathing.

The hard one is to find God or some other spiritual grounding. That certainly takes a leap of faith. But you don’t have to believe every word of a creed or to support much of what comes out of the Vatican to be able to take succour from a vertical dimension as well as the horizontal one.

The middle one is about finding spirit from a passion. Bach is as good as any, but many others are out there – just make sure it has enough depth that you can keep wondering anew. If you choose Bach, go to some live concerts, don’t just rely on recordings. And choose a group that is good, but not necessarily professional – most of all you want their energy to shine through, and that is hard to sustain if their main motivation is financial. Choose a choir like ours.

The easy one is to take time to observe the amazing examples of humanity around us, and reflect on progress, generation to generation, and how wonderful that means the world can become for our own kids and grandkids. Holy or not, that is what spirit means and achieves.

We can draw spirit in this way every single day, but sometimes we are blessed with an experience to shine a sharper light. Last week at Princeton was one such experience for me. My heartfelt thanks to everyone involved.