Psalm 150:5-Praise [God] with cymbals, loud crashing cymbals!

I've been thinking a lot about what I want to say about Obama's inauguration..about how he told people to put aside childish things, about how Praise Song for the Day talked about the importance of love, about how Obama and Biden probably rehearsed their oaths a zillion times and someone botched it in the delivery...

but instead I'm going to talk about music. and cymbals.

I have been a part of a choir (on and off) since I was in elementary school. I have always loved music as a part of worship--I love the hymns and the harmony and the sounds. I consider myself a choral/group singer--I can hit all the notes, I just don't really feel comfortable doing it all by myself unless it's in harmony...and because of that I have always enjoyed music in worship--at church camp, in service, heck, even the Girl Scout songs that talk about how magnificent the earth is are a form of worship to me.

But last week my choir director gave us an article that got my wheels turning--it made me think of how music isn't just a part of worship, it IS worship. Hearing the organ or piano? It's the same as a prayer, except with notes for words. I know that I sing so others can enjoy it, and that that is for God, but I think of that as a part of worship, not as worship itself, if that makes sense.

I mean, it's a very slight difference, but the kind of slight difference that ultimately makes all the difference in the world.

And I know some of you might find this as a stretch, but that's how I feel about our new President.

Considering my crazy-liberal-scientific-eco-friendly ways, I have a rather large number of Republican/pro-McCain/anti-Obama friends/acquaintances/people I know. I mean, take for instance my boyfriend, who's only 100% out of that camp because little miss palin came along--and without her I wasn't quite so far left myself, to be honest (though I still was SO voting like I did).

And anyway, I can safely say that the vast majority of the people I know who voted for McCain (not all of them though, let's be clear! so if you think I'm talking about you and are upset then I'm probably not thinking of you at all!) did so because they were thinking about themselves. Their income. Their tax bracket. Their support/lack-thereof of Bush. Their ideas. Their mindset.

Not McCain's mindest. Not what McCain wanted for the US. What they wanted--for them.

If it sounds like I'm saying all Republicans only think about themselves--I'M NOT. But I am saying that after Obama won I heard sarcastic statements about people's mortgage and gas, or how *great* Obama will be for their pockets. But do you hear that? their. not OUR. not everyone's. Not US. Not the US.

And I think...I think it's like music. I think it's like cymbals...

Because go to hear a marching band play, and I'm telling you--by themselves the cymbals are loud and noisy and awkward. They don't seem like much, they don't seem important. But then hear that fight song, hear that beat, hear that emphasis--and then imagine what it would be like without those cymbals. Without the punctuation. Without the oomph.

And to me? That's what music in church is. It's that exclamation point. And more to the point, that's what Obama is. Anybody could have been a leader for our amazing country. Anybody. And really? I think at the end of the day/year/term, we would've been okay.

But Obama?

he's our cymbals.
he's our oomph.
and I have never, ever been so proud to be an American before. ever.