Madison worked for hours this past week preparing a slide show for the school teacher appreciation dinner. It was a thing of beauty. It’s a beautiful thing to see your daughter create her first multi-media presentation. I’m still a little misty eyed about the technological rite of passage.
The final step in the presentation was to add music. She asked me to help and we selected just the right song. To avoid setting up a lot of equipment we decided to run the show on my laptop and play the music over the sound system in our multi-purpose room. Sounds easy enough right?
I made a CD that had the song track we would use. The plan was to load the show, play the music and Madison would advance the slides as needed according to the music.
The song we chose was Remember Me by Mark Shultz as it fit perfectly with the presentation. When the time came the lights dimmed, Madison took her place at the computer, she started the keynote show and the "sound operator" hit play and the music started. The problem was he had the wrong disc in the five disc carousel. I knew right away the song was wrong but Madison without the slightest hesitation started advancing the slides sequentially timed to the new song.
Did I mention the song was Regresa A Mi by Il Divo? Quite the contrast, quite the different message. I mean you can only like your teachers so much! The only positive thing is that only a couple of us knew the Spanish words they were singing. Yikes!
As the sound operator looked at me I had a split second decision to make. Stop and start over or press through and make the best of it. For some reason I chose to press through and make the best of it. Madison handled it with all the grace and poise of seasoned techie. She is now an official tech journeywoman.
But why, in these settings, do we (I) feel the need to push through and make the best of it. What’s so wrong with stopping, laughing, and saying "ok folks, that’s the wrong song, it’s not that kind of evening" and wait for the right song to start and then proceed?
Honestly where does that "the show must go on" mentality come from?
6 Responses to “The Show Must Go On”
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May 21st, 2007 at 8:52 am
I think that mentality comes from thinking that we are performing all the time. Certainly, that idea exists during worship. One of the comments I hear at College is that people appreciate the fact that things aren’t always highly “polished.” They feel an authenticity because of it. I feel like they don’t have much of a choice since most of us involved in worship there are as unpolished as they come.
May 21st, 2007 at 9:31 am
You know the Long Beach folks … we’re about as laid back as it comes, even when we shoot for excellence. I think there’s a healthy aspect of admitting to goofing up. That said, “Way to go, Madison!!!” There’s a lot to be said about her pressing on without become all flustered, too.
May 21st, 2007 at 10:36 am
I don’t know where the mentality comes from. There have been times in the past I have done the same thing.
Now I don’t hesitate to stop and restart no matter how I might look because I’d rather the final product be good than just getting by.
I’m sure Madison had a great time with her first tech program. It only gets better.
May 21st, 2007 at 11:03 am
Well if Long Beach is “laid back” I supposed we in West Cocoa are comatose.” I think glitches and the acceptance therein make any organization and especially a church, more like family. That is unless your family is “glitch-less.”
That Madison is growing up to be quite a lady.
May 21st, 2007 at 1:47 pm
I too got misty-eyed listening to the passing of the technology baton to my niece. Well done, anyway!
May 21st, 2007 at 8:48 pm
It may be a good or bad thing, but I feel like the “show must go on” attitude comes from a sense of pride. We are afraid to fess up to mistakes, even if it’s not our fault. We’d rather fake it. We teach our children from the beginning to “never let’em see you sweat.” It does help us grow up sometimes though. Yeah to Madison for continuing on. Way to “grow” girl.