This week’s Prompt comes by way of a happy accident. A bit of wordplay that arose in a session of improvisation led, a bit later, to some introspection on the talk that we talk, and the walk that we walk.
We talk a good game, don’t we? We post on Social Media about issues that are important to us; we share with friends and acquaintances on passions and philosophies that we would like to guide our lives. And that’s a good thing, in and of itself. Remember the story that concludes with a young man asking his elder “which wolf wins?” and the elder’s reply “the one I feed.” Talking about our values is one of the ways we reinforce them.
But, be careful! Lest we convince ourselves that we are in fact living these values by merely talking about them a lot. Of course, the present author has no knowledge of your life and how you’re living it, so this is no presumption about the strength of your commitment to your values. What he does know, this author, is just how often he’s fallen short. It is worth our while to occasionally stop and discern: are we walking the talk?
Your Prompt: Sing about walking the talk, about authentically living the values that one professes. Simply that, whatever it means to you, open-ended. Some specific suggestions for how to approach this in the Options below, but don’t feel limited by them. What does this mean to you? Sing this.
Options
It’s good to have options. Here are a couple of ways you might play with this week’s Prompt.
Option A: Hypocrites! – It’s perhaps easier to call out ways in which others’ actions seem to be at odds with their words, especially when we’ve been on the receiving end of this kind of treatment. So, think about a time when you’ve witnessed, directly or indirectly, an act of hypocrisy, and sing your reaction to it. As an option for this Option, perhaps you’ll feel called to recall compassion for the person who exhibited this all-too-human trait, and that will inform your singing.
Option B: “They’re In The Mirror” – “They” who? Me, and you. We, too, are made of this all-too-human stuff. Recall a time when your actions fell short of your words—trying as much as you can to treat yourself with compassion and forgiveness. Then sing for re-committing to your best self, whatever you perceive that to be. As an option for this Option, perhaps you’ll go so far as to check out what’s going on in your life right now. Not for the faint of heart; go gently, if you go this route.
To Contribute
The steps are as follows:
- Step 0: Sign up for a free SoundCloud account here. Join the SSS group.
- Step 1: Record yourself singing your song of walking the talk.
- Step 2: Upload to SoundCloud and post the track to the SSS group.
- Step 3: Listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow singers. (Play nice!)
Deadline: Your tracks should be uploaded by midnight wherever you are on Tuesday, December 08, 2015.
Length: The length of your finished work should be about 1.5 to 4 minutes, or however long you need to sing your song.
Description: It would be awesome to include a short description of where and when you sang your piece—and how it felt.
Title/Tag: When uploading to SoundCloud, put “[sss-walkthetalk]” in the title of your track. Also include the term “sss-walkthetalk” as a tag. This will help us find it.
Group: Once the track is uploaded, click on the “Add to group” button below the waveform and make sure to select the Society for Spontaneous Singing group. (This option will only appear if you have already joined the group! So do that now.)
Linking: You are welcome to include this info in your description:
This track is a reply to “Prompt 45: Walking the Talk.” More on the Society for Spontaneous Singing at http://singthis.org. You can join the SSS at https://soundcloud.com/groups/society-for-spontaneous-singing
Thank you, sweet singers!