Various Veins
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When the choir members began to gather at North Broadway Baptist Church in Tillsonburg, we were met with a director who was a tad aroused.
Rachel Parker spends hours both at practice and at home choosing music suitable to the occasion, and to the voices of singers, and other variables. She goes to where the event will take place to get an idea how she will seat up to 70 singers in the available space.
She knows there are some voices that must be placed so as to be helped by someone with a keener musical ear, and some that should be kept apart lest they be led off key.
When she saw the chairs all arranged in neat rows, she knew she had to make some quick changes because the seats were not where she expected them to be.
It didn't take long to revise the plan, and to fine-tune it so each singer could see her for direction, and she could see each singer to fit her gestures to his or her need.
I've been reading The Last Lion, volume three. It's the story of Winston Churchill's life during the Second World War. There are officers in the various services whose experience is much like Rachel's. Churchill himself caused the loss of many of the finest battleships because he didn't take the change in air power into account. Hundreds of seamen were blown to bits or drowned.
Some leaders were adaptable, like Rachel. Others fell into confusion or panic with deadly results.
We in the choir are lucky that a little egg on our faces may embarrass us, but we'll be able to feast on cookies and coffee or tea after the show.
I have a second book on the go, Paul Volker: the Triumph of Persistence.
Volker worked in money managing before he was invited by the president of the United States to become head of the Central Bank. I'm not going to list names here. This book is a heavy read and I'd just confuse myself and mislead you, the reader. I can say he took a deep cut in pay when he accepted the job. His wife urged him to take it, but she had to rent parts of their house to meet expenses.
Volker's term was renewed for a second four years. He served under Nixon and under Ronald Reagan. His job was tougher than herding cats. He was trying to wrestle inflation down, keep enough money available to protect employees' jobs.
Volker's tools were interest rates and money supply. He trusted interest rates, but did take up the other tool when it was necessary. He was adaptable, like our Rachel.
Monetarists pushed for making dollars available to the wealthy, the so-called trickle down effect. Our famous economist from Iona Station, John Kenneth Galbraith, described it as "feed the horse more oats and the sparrows will get more to eat."
Today, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is wrestling with the same things that Paul Volker faced. Governments have been spending more than they collect. Some of the people charged with the dirty work lack the experience that kept Volker's actions reasonably effective. The feds not long ago urged private enterprisers to avoid causing depression among their employees.
It is ironic that the actions of federal bureaucrats are causing record numbers of men and women on the front lines to fall ill of depression. Like Churchill's generals, they haven't inspected the battlefields. Worse, they lay off workers in the expectation their schemes will succeed in saving money without reduction of services.
As Robert Burns said to the mouse, "The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley, an' lea'e us naught but grief an' pain for promised joy!"
Like a good general, Rachel spends much time and effort in training us, her troops, to know what's expected of us. And she asks for our input, a real morale booster!