Amazing Grace

When I was in grade school I joined the school choir. Thankfully (for me) membership was not audition based. Everyone who showed up and had a desire to sing became part of the choir. I never missed a practice and I always sang my heart out. Just before our first public performance however my mother showed up at our practice. On the way home she suggested that I might want to lip sync the songs when we performed because I had such a 'strong voice' that I sometimes drowned out the other singers and that it really wasn't fair to them. Well, I took this very seriously and simply whispered the songs during the performance, feeling quite proud of 'strong voice' and the special secret I now had.

It wasn't until I was in high-school and the choir fad had faded (I no longer wanted to be a famous singer) that my mother told me the truth: the choir conductor called her to tell her that I was completely tone deaf, could not sing a note, and as a result throwing the entire chorus off key!

I still can't sing a note, despite voice lessons, and I still love to sing despite the fact. The point is, the conductor and my mother were very kind to have handled the situation with such grace!

One of the songs we sang (well, everyone but me) was Amazing Grace - I LOVED the song. But I couldn't for the life of me figure out what a 'wretch' was. Certain it was a spelling mistake I boldly asked the teacher during one practice, " Shouldn't we be singing wrench instead of wretch?

This version of Amazing Grace is truly amazing, and having been to the Coliseum I can only imagine what it might have been like live!!

Do you have any stories of grace to share?

Here is the link because the video is no longer available to embed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DyZTs8_eL8