I made it in early to chat with Mr. Ogando, the school’s principal, about a date for a full-school assembly, wrapping up my residency at Holy Infancy. We’ll be doing the concert on October 22nd. It looks like we will video the event, and that has some interesting ripples….
The younger kids and I had a fairly rambunctious half hour, with lots of movement, lots of attempts at some focused songwriting work, and lots of fun. I was particularly surprised when a very bright girl said she had worked on a verse to Down By the Bay during the weak, and came up with a tree saying hee, hee, hee. That was some artistic work on her part, and I loved it. Balancing chaos and focus is hard work.
The older kids are equally challenging, but in a different way, especially with the now differences between the boys and the girls. These girls are ready and open to performing, while the boys are either very inhibited or totally unfocused. Here’s where I like to work.
One of the main lessons today was Community and the ripples of what we are doing. When one of the boys asked if he could not perform with us in front of the school, I thanked him for asking, but said no. I said I would give my Playground CD out to anyone who would support him in this project, and immediately he was swarmed by his fellow campers. That moment was cool.
We worked on the Holy Infancy tune, and I had great connections with each of the seven kids. We even talked about my hip replacement procedure. But the really nice mini-session was talking about playing on stage for your community. We had had some great times playing together over the last four sessions, but they are about to experience leading this expedition in front of their community. It will be an amazing experience.
Ripples……more on this…..