{"id":2865,"date":"2014-02-09T00:59:25","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T05:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=2865"},"modified":"2014-02-09T01:05:11","modified_gmt":"2014-02-09T06:05:11","slug":"you-make-me-want-to-shout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=2865","title":{"rendered":"joining in the dance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/1016714_10203040410070318_696493120_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2867\" alt=\"1016714_10203040410070318_696493120_n\" src=\"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/1016714_10203040410070318_696493120_n.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/1016714_10203040410070318_696493120_n.jpg 960w, https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/1016714_10203040410070318_696493120_n-300x156.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Black.\u00a0 White.<\/p>\n<p>African.\u00a0 Asian.<\/p>\n<p>All religions, demographics, ethnic, and socio-economic groups.<\/p>\n<p>Singing.\u00a0 For joy.\u00a0 Together.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve heard it said that a \u201cchild shall lead them.\u201d\u00a0 The youth shall lead us&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>The wolf with the lamb&#8230;<\/em><br \/>\n<em>the leopard with the kid.<\/em><br \/>\n<em> The lion and calf, cow and bear&#8230;<\/em><br \/>\n<em> their calves and cubs will grow up together.<\/em><br \/>\n<em> The whole earth will be brimming&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday the Intramuralist had the privilege of observing a midwest, high school show choir competition.\u00a0 It was great fun \u2014 singing and dancing, dancing and singing. \u00a0It\u2019s a fun, formidable, intense competition.\u00a0 There\u2019s something about the commitment and creativity combined with talent and hard work that sends this show choir parent into always humbling, simultaneous smiles and fairly vocal cheers.\u00a0 Yesterday was no exception.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Yet I pen this post not to speak of the success of a single school.<\/p>\n<p>No, I pen this post to acknowledge arguably my always favorite moment of these events&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>After the day show \u2014 awaiting the judges\u2019 results and the announcement of which teams will advance to the finals \u2014 there is a brief period when all schools gather in the auditorium.\u00a0 The kids and parents fill the seats, aisles, floor, you-name-it.<\/p>\n<p>Black.\u00a0 White.<\/p>\n<p>African.\u00a0 Asian.<\/p>\n<p>All religions, demographics, ethnic, and socio-economic groups.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And then the music plays.<\/p>\n<p>Great music.<\/p>\n<p>From the Isley Brothers\u2019 iconic \u201cShout\u201d to Katy Perry\u2019s \u201cFirework,\u201d when the music blares in the auditorium, awaiting the judges proclaimed assessment of those who performed best during the day, everyone joins in the dance&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The kids fill the aisles&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>They dance in their seats&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>They sing and dance and dance and sing and all join in one song&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The kids get all mixed up together.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Where they\u2019re from doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n<p>What they believe doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n<p>Their identified \u201cpeople group\u201d doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t even matter who\u2019s about to win.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s about different people doing life together, sharing their circumstances and their joy.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s about sharing in the dance.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Yes, the youth shall lead us.<\/p>\n<p>And yes, we have a lot to learn.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Respectfully,<\/p>\n<p>AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Black.\u00a0 White. African.\u00a0 Asian. All religions, demographics, ethnic, and socio-economic groups. Singing.\u00a0 For joy.\u00a0 Together. &nbsp; I\u2019ve heard it said that a \u201cchild shall lead them.\u201d\u00a0 The youth shall lead us&#8230; &nbsp; The wolf with the lamb&#8230; the leopard with the kid. The lion and calf, cow and bear&#8230; their calves and cubs will grow &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=2865\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;joining in the dance&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[385],"class_list":["post-2865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event","tag-show-choir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2865"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2876,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions\/2876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}