Collective Sound

On the bleachers I sat, facing 150 child soldiers. Each one was armed with a tiny violin, playing in perfect synchrony. They fired harmonious ammunitions with their bows, and the gymnasium reverberated with the soundwaves of their shared melody. Total strangers, standing next to one another for the very first time, playing the same song. A tune that each of them had practiced hundreds, if not thousands, of times, alone, in their own home, amid their own circumstances. Glowing with flushed cheeks, their eyes glittered with the overwhelming power of their collective sound. As I bid farewell to my seven year old son, he replied, “Mom, I think I’m actually going to like summer violin camp after all.”