LIVING IN HARMONY
By: Michael Cross, LPC
If you have spent any time at all recently looking at social media, watching the news, or talking with people, then it is no surprise when you see hate being spewed out from every direction and witness a country being divided. Whether it’s from the Covid-19 pandemic, the tragedy of George Floyd, or political agendas being pushed, most of us have felt the surge of emotion and anger welling within us, in recent months. I know I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find myself, at times, wanting to direct those feelings at people because they saw things differently than I did. I would even be bold enough to say that many of you have probably felt the same. The fact is that people are different. We look and are genetically different, different parents have raised us in different family styles, we have differing educations, and have been taught by different people. We’ve had countless, different life experiences, not to mention we have different faiths as well…are you getting the idea yet? So how are we expected to live in “unity” when we are all so different?
Recently I came across a Bible verse from the book of Psalms, chapter 133 (NLT), that said, “How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!” I thought to myself, “Maybe that’s it! What if we learn to live in ‘harmony’ rather than ‘unity?’” Let me explain.
I am a singer and have performed vocal music for most of my life. One of the most beautiful and pleasant things to hear is when vocalists harmonize. This occurs when simultaneous, musical parts and notes (that are different) come together to make chords and chord progressions that have a pleasing effect. In other words, different voices, singing different parts, all work together simultaneously (blending) to create a beautiful, unique, sound that is pleasing to the ear! How different and awesome that is in comparison to singing in “unison”, where everyone sings exactly the exact same thing.
So imagine if we, as people and as a nation, embrace and appreciate the differences we each have, and work together to create something beautiful instead of hating each other because people aren’t sounding or thinking like we do. Another important, musical aspect to consider is the “blending” part. The harmony only works when the singers notice and try to blend with what the others around them are singing (the progression part). So in other words, BE YOU (the unique and different individual that you are) while simultaneously paying attention to the others around you (hearing their uniqueness and differences) and blend with them in harmony! What a wonderful difference that would make!
Michael Cross, LPC is a clinical team member at Transforming Life Counseling Center
