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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Francis Davis, Academic and social entrepreneur

Changing the music

Good morning.

A piece of music. It kind of goes cha-cha-cha-cha -cha-cha. – then a synthesised beat lollops forward to disequilibrate your ears.
For example, I had to make a call for someone who needed help. A large organisation had mis-scanned a medical report and so saved it in the wrong digital place. Three hours on three calls all while this same tune was played.

This person’s water bill came back wrong. After a total of 35 hours on the line, Cha cha cha cha cha cha a refund of over £3000 came through.
No doubt you are thinking this was a victory. But almost every other institution I have to call has the same music saved in their systems.

Now, extreme musical stress obviously calls for intense musical redress. You should try playing Chumbawumba’s I get knocked down, but I get up again while filling in a form for Jobseeker’s Allowance. I find that the version of William Tell’s Overture that triumphs in the film Brassed Off works wonders while trying to recover from missing the 30 second window of each day that it is permissible to ring the for an appointment. Turn on the news and there is no option but to reach for No More Heroes by the Stranglers.

The point is to seek the best music and to work it into all the calls we make each day, and then have that luck the next day too. A favourite to which I’ll be turning shortly is the stonking version of the Lord’s prayer -Baba Yetu – performed by the Stellensbosch University choir.

Our father, Baba Yetu, inspire me to make my own songs; to sing despite the disequillibriations of life.

Amen

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