Make Some Noise!

Inter-generational Time 04/05/2020

Earlier this week, I experienced a beautiful, powerful and unifying noise.  It was a hail storm.  For about a minute the hail poured down…beautiful and powerful and loud!  Like any 21st century family, we ran to the door and flung it open to listen, to watch, and share in the experience.  (and of course, record it for social media.)
As we watched from our porch, the neighbor kids were watching from their porch across the street. They too were experiencing the powerful outburst which got them whooping in glee and their whooping made us laugh with them.  Although we were physically distanced apart, we shared a moment together.  It was beautiful, powerful, unifying and noisy.
Palm Sunday, Jesus’s peaceful protest riding into town on a humble donkey to contrast the power of the Empire’s mighty show, was an experience shared together.  Listen to it in your mind.  The clip clop of donkey hooves. The sound of a crowd squeeze tightly together. The rustling of palm leaves as they waved. The muffling sound of cloaks thrown to the ground. The clapping of hands.  The shouts of Hosanna, Save us! 
Like the opening poem, I shared by Shel Silverstein, it was an ‘Ourchestra’ of sounds. The beautiful, powerful, unifying and noisy sound of hopeful people. I think the poem and that parade captures the essence of the young and hopeful at heart.  Joyous exuberance, a can-do spirit, an irrepressible ability to be creative. It is a reminder that we all have a voice–even now, that we can all make a beautiful powerful noise of some sort and make some kind of difference– regardless of what little we think we have to offer.  
So, this Palm Sunday, where will you parade?  In your home, your yard, your neighborhood sidewalk, social media? 
What will you be shouting?  Hosanna! Save us!  Help us!  Love us!  Give me Peace!  I need patience!
What do you need to hear?   I see you!  I hear you!  You are not forgotten!  You are doing the best you can!  Peace be with you! 
It's Palm Sunday!  Get up and make some noise.  What does the Empire need to hear?  What does the crowd have to say?  Say it in shouts, draw it in side walk chalk, put in the window, draw it on a protest sign. But do it today!  Be visible, be beautiful, be noisy!  Be part of the 'Ourchestra'!  Amen!  

'OURCHESTRA' by Shel Silverstein
So you haven’t got a drum, just beat your belly.
So I haven’t got a horn–I’ll play my nose.
So we haven’t any cymbals–
We’ll just slap our hands together,
And though there may be orchestras
That sound a little better
With their fancy shiny instruments
That cost an awful lot–
Hey, we’re making music twice as good
By playing what we’ve got!

'Ourchestra' words by Shel Silverstein from 'Where the Sidewalk Ends, the Poems and Drawings of Shel Sliverstein.  Harper-Collins Publishers, 1974