It’s been raining for 5 days in Los Angeles, so the turn out for Christmas Caroling at our neighbor Steph’s house was a tad smaller than the past couple of years.
When my house mate Julia and I showed up to the pre-party, there was a huge chunk of smoked pig on the table, which might sound delicious to some of you, but being mostly vegan wasn’t really my slice of tofurky. Looking around, there wasn’t anyone within 10 years of my age. As this is largely a neighborhood event, we were a diverse gathering of people, not really from my tribe (artistic, hippie, permaculture, activist, cultural creatives).
So I sat back in a big easy chair and had some lighthearted conversation with the neighbors, but I wasn’t feeling it… I kept checking my watch and thinking about the kirtan that was going to be starting in Venice soon. Now those are my people! It was rainy and Venice is a big drive, so I decided to stick around just for the warm up part of the singing night and then skip out before trudging through the rain.
Well our organizer Steph has an amazing voice semi-pro, so this isn’t your average out of key caroling session. We rehearsed, assigned parts and talked about solos. She would stop and assertively correct us, but all the time we knew she was happy to have us there doing the best we could with whatever singing voice we happen to have. I was starting to have fun, so I decided to stick around for a house or two despite the rain.
Steph has been doing this for 40 years, and this was the first time she had rain, but the neighbors had been prepped with calls and flyers letting them know we were coming, and we weren’t about to disappoint, so off we trudged into the storm.
People were so happy to have us sing for them. Lots of neighbors had cookies or hot cider for us. One of our neighbors gets a huge kick out of us caroling each year and they get together with the folks in the house next door to prepare treats. It was clear that they had been looking forward to us coming all night. The man of the house was short, gray, and retired, but he had the energy and joy of a 10 year old. He jumped out on the porch like a spritely little elf and insisted that all 20 of us sopping wet singers come inside. He then proceeded to take hundreds of photos. They were having just as much fun as we were.
Well somewhere along the way, I realized my heart had opened, and so had the hearts of my neighbors. I realized that these were my people, my species despite our apparent differences of age, ethnic background, political views, etc. The boundaries of our individual egos melted or at least became softened as we enjoyed the camaraderie, joy, and silliness of “singing in the rain.”
Sometimes I worry about our future without cheap overabundant energy and all the other challenges we face, but I wasn’t worried last night. It was so wonderful to have a heart opening experience right here in my neighborhood with such a diverse rag tag band of merry makers. No electricity or technology required. Ironically no singing lessons required either!
Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Happy New Year, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanza
