A circle where we all belong

As I mentioned in the comments, yesterday was the day Daughter in Ohio sang with the choir at her school's Winter Festival. I suppose there are people who would be disgusted that they couldn't just call it a "Christmas concert" and be done with it. "We *used* to call them Christmas concerts, and sing Christmas carols, and act out the nativity story, and it was fine. Heck, there were even a few Jewish kids at the school, but they never complained about our Christmas celebrations. It just wasn't a big deal!"

There is, of course, a big difference between "nobody complained" and "everyone was fine with it". I was thinking about this the other day when a group leader was talking about an "executive decision" he'd made a few weeks earlier to postpone a discussion topic someone brought up. He said, "I really wasn't supposed to do that...but nobody complained!" I was thinking, "No, but we weren't especially happy about it," but I still didn't say anything. You see how that works? Lack of a voiced objection is *not* the same as everyone being happy with things. And I suspect that, back in the days where celebrating Christian holidays were celebrated in public schools, people weren't all "fine with it". But sometimes it's easier not to say anything--especially if you're aware that you're in the minority.

Back to Daughter's choir concert. There were songs for several different holidays, representing different musical styles, and parts of songs were in different languages. A (presumably Muslim) girl seated directly in front of me was wearing a head covering. There were kids in the choir who had two proud moms in the audience. All of these things, taken together, would probably make Bill O'Reilly's head explode.

But I thought, this is the way it *should* be. All traditions should be celebrated. Everyone should be included.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

All of this makes me think of a song by Raffi, which was inspired by the Earth Charter. It is one of the songs on his CD, Resisto Dancing: Songs of the Compassionate Revolution

In this world of wonder
circle where we all belong
Voice of a thousand tribes
circle where we all belong … where we all belong
Pulse of the human heart
circle where we all belong … where we all belong
Circle where we all are free
circle where we all belong … where we all belong.

Every creature land and sea, every flower every tree
makes a circle, where we all belong.
Every bird every cloud, every raindrop that falls
makes a circle, where we all belong.
Every turn of the tide, every ocean wave
makes a circle, where we all belong.
Every breeze that blows, every grain of sand
makes a circle in the sun, where we all belong.

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