Today the Primary sang Mother, I Love You during Sacrament Meeting.
When it was time to sing, Victor exited the pew and walked toward the front with the other children. The closer he got to the front, the lower he hung his head and the further his little shoulders slumped. I could hear the Charlie Brown Dejection music in my head.
His sweet Sunbeam teacher shepherded him up the stairs with his classmates. He stood as far to the right as he could.
The music started, but Victor did not sing. Instead, tears welled up in his eyes. He had the biggest frown I'd ever seen. Until the next moment, when the frown was even deeper.
I smiled and waved encouragingly, but after the first verse, Victor slowly turned and faced the side wall. His profile was to the audience.
At the end, the song leader kindly took his hand and led him down the stairs (because he wasn't moving), and he Charlie Browned back to our row.
I put out my arm to welcome him and he said (very audibly), "I just could not do it."
"You did a great job standing there with the kids," I said.
"I did not sing a single word," he told me tearfully.
Later that night I asked Jeremy's mother if Jeremy had participated in special music as a small boy.
"He stood at the front facing away from the other children and did not sing," she recalled.
But what's a Primary musical number--in any generation--without a recalcitrant Sunbeam?
2 comments:
I love this story.
Poor Victor, a sunbeam with tears in his eyes makes my heart hurt.
I was just glad my boy went up, he was one out of two sunbeams that actually had the guts to make the walk, the other four stayed with their moms. My son sings the songs at home, but won't sing them in primary, when asked why not he says, they sing too fast at primary.
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