Choir Notes

In Trying Times:
From Music and the Spoken Word
Delivered by: Lloyd D. Newell . Program 4131

We live in trying times. People are losing their jobs, their savings, even their homes. Others face personal tragedies of various kinds. Even if you aren't currently facing tough times, you probably know someone who's there right now. What do we need to bounce back, to cope with such adversity and uncertainties? We need each other.

Perhaps you have a friend who stepped into your life at just the right time and shared your burden. Legendary singer Ray Charles benefited from the sensitivity of such a friend.

When Ray wa five, his little brother fell in a washtub and drowned when Ray was unable to save him. Months later, Ray began to slowly lose his eyesight, eventually becoming completely blind. but at age 15 came the most devastating tragedy - the unexpected death of his beloved mother. Young Ray soon sunk into deep depression.

He later recounted: "There was an old lady in town called Ma Beck. She was the kind of lady that - well, everybody in town used to say that if there was a heaven, she was certainly going to be there when sh passed... This elderly woman saw the trauma I was going through. So she took me aside one day and siad, 'Son, you know that I knew your mama. An I know how she tried to raise you. And I know she always taught you to carry on.'"

"That episode with Ma Beck," Ray said, "shook me out of my depression. It really started me on my way. After that I told myself that I must do what my mom would have expected me to do."1

Overcoming adversity, learning its painful lessons, is one of life's great purposes. But no one should have to do it alone. As friends, neighbors, and family members, we can touch others' lives in ways no one else can. If we are willing to watch and listen, we can say the right thing at the right time to lift another's burden.

1 "Autobiography," http://www.raycharles.com/the_man_autobiography.html.