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We’ll sing in the sunshine

That was a tune written and sung by Gale Garnett in 1964. Won her two Grammies. The tune shows up on “oldies” radio from time to time. You know you’re getting older when the oldies remind you of your youth.

The song came up in a very unusual context the other day. Hospice held a webinar on helping people with grief. One of the presenters told about a bluegrass band that did a lot of outdoor appearances and started each with “We’ll Sing in the Sunshine,” bluegrass style. Seems many of their outdoor concerts got cancelled when it rained.

One of the band members became seriously ill. So, in that sense, there was less sunshine to sing about. To offset the set-back, they added “Singin’ in the Rain” to their repertoire. If it’s a stretch to imagine “We’ll Sing in the Sunshine” done by a bluegrass band, it’s really a stretch to imagine “Singin’ in the Rain” done that way. The latter tune was written in about 1929 and forever etched in cinematic history when Gene Kelly sang and danced to the tune in the 1952 movie of the same name. It lives on it was the All-County Musical in 2013 and it was wonderful.

The point of the Hospice presentation and the point of this music history-related column, if it’s not too late to get to it, is that we can “sing” rain or shine. The “tunes” can be all over the map. Even the bluegrass genre has a spectacular range of topics from capital punishment ballads to joyful dances.

There is no doubt that life “happens to us.” Phrases like: “I didn’t expect that!” “It came out of the blue!” and “I didn’t see that coming.” Are commonplace. More often than not, the surprises aren’t happy ones. And along with all the things that happen to us comes a huge variety of feelings. We get angry, we get frustrated, we get sad.

But why are those feeling so automatic and why do they have such power? Let’s go back to those two musical numbers. They’re about “singing” no matter what. Singing rain or shine. Singing is the choice made by the person having the experience. Or maybe we should think in terms of “owning” the experience. Then it’s a short step to thinking about owning the response.

Certainly there are things we can’t be joyous about. A failed relationship, a lost job, a terminal illness diagnosis. But no matter what label we give ourselves in those situations, “loser,” “idiot,” “cursed person,” we are so much more than that. We can own the situation or the condition and the label. And then we can ask ourselves: “What else am I?”

The failed relationship with a spouse doesn’t mean we aren’t a successful parent or friend. The loss of a job doesn’t mean we aren’t successful in our other life roles. A terminal illness doesn’t mean we don’t have time to do wonderful and important things. We can “sing” no matter what. There can be “joyful noise” that rises above the trials and tribulations, if we choose that. We can sing, rain or shine.

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