Don't Grow Tired of Preaching to the Choir

Perfect pitch often comes through lots of practice

When I started sharing my opinions on Substack, it was at a time when I felt like I just had to do “something.”  Many of the authors here started writing for the very same reason.  Those of us who are trying our best to stay committed to our posts, whether it’s once a week or daily, belong to a group that truly believes we have to do something to contribute to the future of humanity.  That we can’t just watch the world go by without doing the best we can to share facts, humor, recommendations, ideas, and/or opinions about what populations should be doing to try and secure a bit of liberty for themselves and, hopefully, for the generations who come after us. 

I went about writing my posts thinking maybe I’d have a dozen people or so who would actually care about what I have to say.  I was (and am) fine with that, as I always think, “if just one person is encouraged, if one person begins to think about something differently, if one person changes just one thing in their lives that is keeping them in a slave-state-of-mind, then it will be worth it.”  And it has been worth it.  I’ve read comments on my posts from people who (at least in words) stated they are going to start doing something.  I’ve read heartbreaking comments from people who have almost lost their minds over the last couple of years, along with most of their friends and family but picked up their shattered lives and moved on.  I’ve been encouraged myself at times when a commenter shares something they’ve done to buck the system and live an independent life free from the ever-reaching tendrils of a system that has truly been setup to destroy us.  I’ve been reminded often of what I’ve always known:  Liberty is a state of mind.  And although it may seem like we can’t ever truly be free, the only liberty we ever really have in life is that liberty that we *take for ourselves*.  We can’t wait for a government to give us permission to be free.  We can’t wait for someone else to start “giving” us freedom.  We have to find any area in our lives where we can make choices that make us independent and then “live the liberty” we create for ourselves.  

What frustrates me as I opine here weekly, are those who seem to have given up.  Those who say, “Rob, you’re just preaching to the choir.”  I’ve given this statement a lot of thought over the last few weeks.  I come from a musical family.  Mostly singers on my Dad’s side and musicians who play instruments on my Mom’s side.  Every one of my siblings and blood relatives are able to sing and, if we want to, play an instrument or two.  We can all carry a tune.  Our Choir is spread out all over the world and if we came together to perform a piece of music… we’d have to practice.  We would have one thing in common:  Our ancestry.  But we would all still have different political beliefs, cultural backgrounds, religious doctrines, and a myriad of other differences.  Our choir would be unpracticed, fractured and, quite possibly, a bit out of tune.  But the one thing we would agree on would be that we were going to perform the piece of music we had chosen. 

I specialize in bass vocals, so I would most likely gather those who sing bass.  My sister is an alto, she would gather the altos.  My Mom is a Soprano and so on and so forth.  Those who specialize in specific instruments whether brass, strings, keyboards or percussion would gather those talents to themselves as well.  Then we would begin to study the sheet music.  We would discuss the timing, timbre and the “feel” that we wanted to portray through our performance.  We would most definitely argue about specifics.  We would probably argue about who should be the director and numerous other bits and pieces before we finally began our first rehearsal.  Even though we are all talented, our first rehearsal would suck.  We would stop in the middle and I would probably tell the bass singers to stop using so much vibrato.  My aunt would tell the string section to try to exude more emotion as their bow glides across the strings.  In other words, we would all begin coaching one another and then… we would try it again.  And again. And again.  The process would continue like that for hours and maybe even days before we finally felt we had it just about right.  Not perfect mind you; just about right. 

This is how I see “preaching to the choir”.  Yes, some of us may be doing just that, but have any of us perfected anything in our lives yet?  If we are honest with ourselves and each other I believe most of us would say no.  We have the choir and the instruments, but every one of us needs a bit of coaching and practice before we have made things “just about right.”  Each of us have come together to perform an incredible symphony of liberty, but none of us have perfected it.  We all have a part to play.  No one thing that someone does is insignificant.  The ideas I have and the things I do may not be exactly the same as what one of the other choir members does.  But our goal is the same. 

So, in my opinion, it *is* beneficial to preach to the choir.   If we have chosen this choir, it means we want something different.  It means we want to carry a tune that the rest of society doesn’t.  And even though we are all in the same choir, it doesn’t mean that all of us can’t use a bit of coaching from time to time.  A bit of encouragement.  A bit of hope, and dare I say, love. 

As I approach 100 choir members who have chosen to read my rants, I want to say:  Thank you!  You have helped keep me sane.  Most of us will most likely never meet one another face to face.  Some of us will join different choirs in the future.  New members will come and go.  Some will give up and others will practice until their fingers bleed or their voices are so hoarse they feel they may never recover.  But our choir will press on.  We will encourage one another, coach one another, share with one another until the “Symphony of Liberty” is heard far and wide when the curtain pulls back and millions of us are positioned and ready to give the performance of a lifetime.

Don’t ever stop preaching to the choir.  But always practice the same things you preach to your choir. There’s no greater reward than hearing a voice or instrument that used to be out of tune now in perfect pitch.