Recap of an eventful Thursday (March 4th, 2011)

John and I were working on three songs for Bill Cuff's presentation for our Altruism class...
He wanted us to learn "Borderline," "What to do with what you got," "Somewhere over the Rainbow."
Neither of us had any idea how it would be structured in the place of a standard class period (or deviate from Kottler's regime).
We met to practice the songs as it got closer to the scheduled class day (B14)
I also found that we would perform for both of Kottler's scheduled classes because Bill would be doing it twice: 12:15pm, 2:55pm

Anyhow, the presentation was about courage and the results of Bill's dissertation. He'd interviewed and gathered data from 30 people who were being nominated for the Most Courageous/Noble People Award. 10 were women who had been severely sexually assaulted (here he shared a story about a woman whose abuse began as early as 3 years old up until she left at 18 years old, who despised the word Survivor, and coined the term, Surpassor because she felt that she was stronger because of what she went through), 10 people who had significant disabilities and would never be as mobile (here he shared tidbits about those who were either paralyzed mid-body, were confined to wheelchairs for life or inactive use of limbs) and lastly, 10 people who were in their last stages and suffered from HIV/AID's and at that time it was a greater stigma then there is now and drugs for it hadn't been perfected (here he shared the story of a woman in her last stages who believed a cure would be found in her life time, but it proved not to be so...for she died 3 months later.All of these individuals had incredible stories of what they did with what disparities they were facing.

All of the interviewees died at some point after the research study was conducted, but the reasoning for their inclusion was reaffirmed.
All had an unfailing hope and were resilient in spite of their circumstance. He asked us all to close our eyes and lead us into a visualization. We were to conjure up the face
of someone we admire and respected so much. When we regrouped, he asked how many people thought of those who'd past on and those who were still alive. It was a mixture.
His follow up question was how many of us can associate courageousness as a strong attribute or a reason for their influence over our lives as they battled injustices.
He asked that for the remainder of the class period, we keep them close and imagine them sitting next to us, just across the borderline. This cued me and John to begin that song.

There was a sheet that he passed out outlining the themes of courageousness and characteristics he found in all 30 people and the words they used to describe other people
they found to be courageous. A word he pointed out was stubbornness and how often people identified with it. As he said, many people associate it in colloquial terms as a
negative attribute, but in its core, it is in fact a very telling component to distinguish those who stand up for what is right and those who don't. He also had a self-assessment
test which he went over. He said that the average American generally had a 7 or 8 average on the courageous scale. However, those who were being interviewed for the Most Courageous/
Noble People Award scored an average of 10.9. He also said they also registered higher on the hopefulness scales than that of individuals leading "normal" lives. He also shared the story of meeting one woman who was recently added to the wall of courageous people who rescued and helped Jews during the Holocaust in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. She was older woman by now (86 years old he said) but she was of a sweet and peaceful temperament. He said that he was humbled by the experience as I'm sure we all would be. She had watched a truck stop in the middle of the room and Nazis got out and grabbed little Jewish children and tossed them into it without care. She had saw two outraged women express contempt for what was happening, and they too in spite of who they were, be hauled into the back of the truck. The fact that she did nothing to save any of them haunted her and she vowed to do something about it. She began by harboring families under her kitchen floor and did so for over a 100. One particular chilling incident was when she harbored a father and two children. That evening Nazis did their usual searches among houses and found nothing. But unbeknownst to her, they were finding more Jews when they waited a few minutes after the initial inspection. Shortly after they reemerged. The woman said she'd opened the door and standing on her porch was one of the Nazis. Behind her was the family of three who had frozen in place because it was clear that they were found out. She said she could only do one thing then, and she would do it again. She thought of all those lives she had seen this guard responsible for, and reached for the pistol she was given at the beginning of the war. She never thought she would use it, but in that moment, instinct and judgment told her if there was any time, it would be now. She shot and killed him front point range. It was an extraordinary story and I was completely floored.

We watched a bit of the video for a cross-country biking outing done for fundraising and awareness purposes. There were 3 able-bodied bicyclists and 3 men and women in hand paddling bicycles due to their disabilities. There a support van that followed behind them. It was over 4,150 miles and took them 58 days. Most days they peddled at 15 mph. It was incredibly inspiring and I don't feel that I stand alone in feeling incredibly sentimental as I watched it. It took us right into our next song "What to do what you got" which is pretty self-explanatory. We have what we have, and we can't get what we aren't meant to have. So what do you do, other than to work with what you got?! The class ended with "Somewhere over the rainbow" as a light song about hope and courage.


Singing wise- it was a blast. John and I work well together in that we are creative and just pick up on where we are trying to take it. I think we are both performers so that's where that helps. We did mix and mess up the lyrics of the second song during the second class (my class period) and I was laughing as we continued singing through it. It was also video-recorded by someone from the SAS communications/photography.

I was moved by the number of people that thanked me for singing. It was indeed a fantastic overall presentation. I was appreciative of Bill's vision, his articulation of his points and happy that he thought to include music or just me in general. There are a ton of singers on this ship so that was great to work alongside John and support Bill.  I was even more overwhelmed by those who were crying and hugged me afterwards. I really do zone out even though I am present and connecting while I sing. Seeing grown people (Sea Salts/Life Long Learners), staff/faculty members and my own peers moved to that point was really really really powerful and I was shaking after listening to what they were saying to me. People want to be emailed the lyrics of the songs we sung and the video of us. It's amazing how I chose a path of further education as opposed to the music path that I was debating in high school. Yet music and words have not fail to follow me wherever I go. I've also seemed to have a better control of my range and exerting emotion as the temperature calls for it. I think what I am trying to say is as I've evolved, so has my voice and my sound. Subsequently Annie one of the Life Long Learners suggested that John and I make a motivational/inspirational cd of songs (including the 3 we sung) and sell it to the shipboard community (all proceeds to go to a charity). With so many different causes and reasons to create awareness it was a great idea but it was all happening so fast. Other people around her were agreeing that it would be a fabulous thing to do and that they would buy it and with our "creamy (John) and dreamy (me)" voices, it would sell fast. Dumbfounded John and I engaged in the conversation, mostly listening to be honest. We met again with Annie during dinner as she discussed logistics of how it could work since ISE doesn't necessarily endorse selling things. We could work out head shots with the media/communications folks. We had printers and could make CD labels/stickers. We discussed songs and came up with: the 3 we sung, Man in the Mirror, Stand by Me, Lean on Me, Amazing Grace as well as several other suggestions from folks (Imagine, Everything is Possible, Hurt and some others). All I can think is whew...crazy how life goes isn't it?