How do we learn to bridge our differences?
When we sing in a choir, we learn how to come together despite our differences. Your voice and mine might sound completely different, but together we can be part of a unified ensemble. Your opinions and mine might not agree, but we can set it aside for the sake of beauty. Your personal story and mine might have never intersected before, but we can join our stories for the music.
Yes, it usually takes a leader to unite us. Yes, we might not be best friends outside of the choir. Yes, it takes work. But it’s work worth doing, and work that we can carry beyond the choir to inform how we collaborate with others in other situations.
Not for the first time, I wonder what it would be like to form a choir of elected leaders.