Singing, approximately

As I drove into work this morning I didn't feel like hearing about stabbed Japanese people so I left the radio turned off: I remembered that it was a good opportunity to sing, being alone.

I sing really badly. I have so little control over pitch that I can't even be sure if my next note will differ from the previous and if I try to reach notes then I sometimes make sounds that are entertainingly unlike singing.

Still, I probed my comfortable range a bit. It didn't seem to be very wide and I mostly tried to work within it; I was pleased to be able to transpose into it. Overall, my efforts were decidedly ropey but I enjoyed myself and thought I might have hope for the long term. It was interesting to test my ability to improve upon the previous noise I had made.

Just as I was making my way through Good King Wenceslas I happened to spy a colleague so I broke off to give him a lift for the rest of the way into the office.

Reacting to Father Jacques Hamel's death

The Daesh-related killing of Father Hamel during Mass made me angry at Daesh. I try to feel compassion and pity for people so damaged that they would kill innocents but in this case it took some effort. I was curious about that: Daesh have done many bad things to many people, the murder of a single old man is a drop in that lake. I wonder if my reaction was related to my recent visits to abbeys and imagining the life of the monks, or the targeting of somebody so very harmless and perhaps very good, or that Mass is a familiar situation for me, or perhaps it is even just the sheer impropriety of the scene. I guess I need to be better at taking more note of the suffering of those more alien to me.