I feel like I should explain my “Dead White Guy?  Really?” title and commentary in the first post.  Attempts to be witty can easily be interpreted as disrespectful, and I meant no disrespect towards J.S. Bach.  I hope he knows that.  Taking on a project like this, however, involves some evaluation of how I spend my time broadly and specifically with music.

A few weeks ago at church we had a guest speaker from Goshen’s Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) who shared about the organization’s work with our city’s homeless population.  It was a moving and sobering reminder of the significant needs right here in our community.  As I listened I found my mind wandering to my exciting new project —  “I’m going to learn WTC Book One! I can’t believe it!”  Then the speaker’s voice cut through my delight and I snapped back to the stories of families struggling to break out of poverty and those dedicating their time to help them. My new project seemed slightly more ridiculous — perhaps my first post should have been titled, “Hours of your life learning solo keyboard music when there are so many needs in the world?  Really?”

The usual responses to this forever question are comfortably lodged in my consciousness — a hurting world needs art and beauty, etc.  But the next layer of guilt soon arrives, reminding me of today’s creators and composers who represent so much of the world’s diversity, work hard on their craft and are in need of exposure.  Why not focus my time sharing the art and beauty of this breathing music rather than on a volume that is so deeply entrenched in the Western classical musical canon?

Last night I watched a Jon Stewart clip about the Chick-fil-a mess and a solution for these life conundrums was revealed — like carbon offsets, let’s offset our money and time choices. For every Chick-fil-a sandwich we feel guilty about (if we do), a Ben and Jerry’s pint.  For every prelude, I could volunteer a couple hours at or donate to IHN.  For every fugue, I could do something tangible to promote music by a living composer.  (Start at 2:15 to see the relevant part of this clip):

 

Will I do these things?  I don’t know yet. To be honest, my encounters with poverty and my concerns about ethics don’t result in as much concrete action as they should. At a core level, in fact, I feel fine about hours spent practicing Bach and don’t know that they need to be routinely offset with anything. However, consistent practices to live out my concerns, even if motivated by guilt, keep me grounded, aware, and honest. And may even do some good.