Playing solo, or singing together

A number of years ago, His Excellency, Kenneth Untner, then Bishop of Saginaw (Michigan) was invited to preach a retreat with the priests of our diocese. He struck us as a bit of a rebel, but that's not always a bad thing.

Bishop Untner was a musician who enjoyed playing piano, so he moved over to a keyboard that had been set in place, and began playing a well-known hymn. He also sang it on his own. After a verse or two, he stopped and looked at us. Then he said, now I want you to join me; you know the words ... and of couse we all added our own voices. At the end of that exercise, he looked at us and said, 'now the first part of this presentation was good, but the second part was better'. After no more than five minutes among us, he had already captured our interest ... and he left the room (lecture finished).

Life can be like that. We often try to do lots of things on our own, but there are some things that are just better when we do them together with others. More hands make lighter tasks, more voices provide different ideas, more ideas enrich the possibiities, and more possibilities just make life more fun.

Collaboration is not always easy, but it's definitely worth the effort. Work, life, lots of things are just better when we do them together.