A *Swan-Song* Christmas — By Peter A. Black

The piece below is a modified edition of my final article that concluded my weekly column – P-Pep! that ran for 23 years.

Have you ever performed a ‘swan song’? 

Credit: GetDrawings.com 

Let’s say, an operatic singer begins having problems with her voice and her vocal range isn’t quite what it used to be. She’s still a wonderful, experienced artist. However, she’s aware that it takes much more energy than before to reach the upper extremities of her range, and she has to exert greater concentration to hold them steady.

Since she’ll not be getting a new voice this side of heaven, she decides to retire, figuring that she’d better quit while still at the peak of her profession.

The peak can be a perilous place, because, to where do you go from the peak? By quitting she would avoid the embarrassment of her voice cracking in performance and disappointing her fans, or having music critics carping that it’s time she quit.

And so, she plans a retirement recital featuring a selection of her best-loved repertoire. That performance will be her “Swan Song.” 

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Perhaps your swan song was a speech you gave upon retirement from your workplace or business, or when moving on to new opportunities.

I’ve ‘swan-songed’ on a number of occasions. Most occurred when I was leaving pastoral charges to go to another. At the final service, in addition to my final sermon and expressions of gratitude to the congregation and so on, my wife and I would sometimes be asked to sing.

Those were usually bittersweet occasions. In the earlier days it meant tearing our sons away from their friends and school chums and the familiar haunts where they’d spent some of their growing-up years. The sweetener, though, was a sense of adventure and eagerness, despite trepidation, for taking on new challenges.

It’s not uncommon for some fun-poking at swan-song events, as emcees and colleagues reminisce, presenting generous tributes of appreciation, or engaging in ‘hot-roasting,’ as they recall comedic incidents and oddities of the departing ‘swan.’ Mild roasting was not uncommon in my case, since there’s ample idiosyncratic fodder to draw from.

I began writing this inspirational column, P-Pep! during August of 1996 in The Watford Guide Advocate. It has continued throughout the process of amalgamation with several other papers and their rebirth into the Lambton Middlesex Standard. 

We’re not in heaven yet; however, it’s time for a new writing voice and a new column name. And now, after twenty-three years P-Pep! column will be gone. Perhaps the publisher will continue making this space available for someone else to – as it were – sing the praises of our Lord Jesus and offer an elevated focus to encourage our readers along their respective life pathways.

I’m still singing vocal music – mostly sacred. My voice cracks . . . a lot, and yet I’m grateful that I have health and strength still to sing and play, speak in services and visit the sick, and am blessed that my wife May shares in many of these pursuits. For now, I’ve been drawn back into a pastoral role in a country church and community ministry.

I’m grateful to the publisher for accepting my submissions and am especially grateful to Vicki MacKenzie for her skill, care and friendship; she has formatted P-Pep! throughout these many years. I’m grateful too, for you, the reader. Without you, P-Pep! would have been pointless!

As I go ‘swanning’ out of this space I pray that you will all be blessed with a joyous Christ-filled Christmas, and with a New Year that, along with its challenges, will include much cheerful encouragement, with grace and peace through Jesus our Lord.

Peter.
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So it has been and so it is.

To all of our TWG authors blogspot contributors and readers and your loved ones: May the Blessings of God in Christ Jesus our Lord be multiplied to you this Christmastime and throughout the Coming Year, with grace and peace, through the Prince of Peace.

Our Place

Amen.

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Peter is author of Parables from the Pond (Word Alive Press) and Raise Your Gaze ... Mindful Musings of a Grateful Heart (Angel Hope Publishing). 

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More Lessons to Come

 As long as we live, we really ought to keep on learning. The other option to that is being stagnant or dying. Tough words, but they’re true. Think of seniors who take up university studies. They now have the time to devote to it and they want to keep learning. Or people who do crossword puzzles to keep their minds active. 

I teach seniors at a community centre. Now that they have more time on their hands, and perhaps a little extra cash, they often strive to learn new things and keep their gray matter (brains) working. In my class they’ve learned about writing. Two of my students have written their life story and had them published. Other classes I've taught include learning about setting up a blog and writing posts, as well as storytelling. Bucket list or continuing to learn doesn’t matter, but what does is their willingness to keep on being a student, regardless of their age.

Recently I watched a video of seniors in a dance lesson on a Facebook post. In the article and accompanying video, the writer quoted a study out of McGill University in Canada in which researchers and participants discovered that “learning the steps necessary to tango actually improved brainpower and balance.” The participants were seniors who had “experienced a fall within the last year and were scared of falling again.” Otherwise the seniors were healthy. It showed that when we learn something new, the brain develops new pathways and the mind becomes more alert.

Patricia McKinley’s current research program through McGill University investigates leisure-based physical activities that promote health and well-being in vulnerable populations, especially those that use dance as a rehabilitation tool. I’d like to see some of those studies take place in our fair cities and help people I know.

What I do know, that many mature citizens are also learning, is the balance between learning and continued enjoyment of life. I’m a bit younger than many of those I teach but I decided before Christmas that I wanted to learn to play guitar and was planning to take lessons. My youngest daughter had a guitar sitting around while she still lived at home, and I had played with it some, but there were just too many demands on my time and I let it go, but now… I’m taking lessons. 

I took my daughter shopping with me and we found a guitar that had a good sound and was the right size for me. We also got a few necessary items, including new coated strings that would be easier for a beginner. And I, too, have joined others taking lessons as a mature learner—developing new neural paths that the art demands. Like rocking and rubbing your tummy at the same time. With the guitar, one hand is strumming (hmm, still working on that one), and the other hand playing the chords and notes and trying to coordinate the two. But I’m determined. Some of the chords that were hard at first are now easier, and my instructor says the strumming is coming along. He’s been playing for 60 years, so he knows strumming. Thus I have hopes that new neural paths are developing in my brain that will allow me to accomplish this task. I have a couple of tough chords yet to master.

 

So today, with a bit of cash, I’m going to gather a few extra accessories, ones that seem essential since I’ve begun this journey. No big stage plans, just something I’ve often wanted to learn. And now a buddy to play guitar with would be helpful, and I can play whatever tunes I want to learn. I’m happy that my teacher likes gospel songs, so they’ll be in my repertoire too. 

As my teacher says, "The road to Carnegie Hall, is practice, practice, practice."  

"I'm not planning on Carnegie," I joked with the recreation coordinator after the second lesson, "but I will  practise." And I am doing just that. There's more than one way to worship.

 

"Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts." Psalm 105: 2a

Carolyn Wilker is an author, editor, avid gardener and a perpetual learner.

www.carolynwilker.ca