But Get Me a Musician

And then, while the musician was playing the power of the Lord came on him.

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I don't know about you but as for me, lately, music can move me to crying so easily. And honestly, it's not like I'm crying constantly anymore like I was just after the liver came back. No, mostly I am composed. Really. Just normal life stuff. But I go to church or to the dance studio, and the artistry just takes me somewhere deep inside and all around and brings it out.

Maybe indeed it is the power of God.

And so it was even extra sad to watch the Cambodians in our church cry at Mr. Bun's funeral. A lot of their eulogies were in Khmer so I could only imagine what they were saying. I imagined it was about how this man was able to preserve for all of them a little piece of their collective crystal clean classical Cambodia; through the celestial sounds of this pure music which Mr. Bun could play and teach like a master. I wondered if it helped people to forget the killing fields which they escaped. And if it transported them to a time and place where they were together with their whole families.

What is home changes when you leave it. You change and it does. And you transform your new home. It all kind of fuses together. The melting pot really is true to some degree. So a little piece of classical Cambodia is now home at our church and all of St. Paul. and beyond.

Mr. Bun won a Bush Foundation Fellowship last year, went to Cambodia to retrieve a bunch of instruments (photos left), came back and started a music school. What's interesting to me is that the person who will now lead the school is a non-Cambodian woman, speaking of the fusion of home cultures.

Musicians from the school played today for Pastor Sue's farewell. Her last day at Christ Church on Capitol Hill. Dog gone. No more Mr. Bun leading the Khmer Choir. And no more Pastor Sue. So home changes even if you don't leave. But we know we will eventually leave here too. Destination change. Get me a musician.

Speaking of home and leaving and whatever, we booked Bob a ticket to NYC for next weekend. He will be together with his whole family.

I hope you are all having a lovely Sunday afternoon. Thank you so much for coming over to the liver blog. I wish I had nine lives to live simultaneously so I could be with you all in person, or at least write to you all, all the time.

With love, T

P.S. Here's the whole reading that Pastor Sue brilliantly came up with for Mr. Bun's funeral:

Elisha said to the king of Israel, "What have I to do with you? Go to your father's prophets or to your mother's." But the king of Israel said to him, "No; it is the Lord who has summoned us, three kings, only to be handed over to Moab." Elisha said, "As the Lord of hosts lives, whom I serve, were it not that I have regard for King Jehoshaphat of Judah, I would give you neither a look nor a glance. But get me a musician." And then, while the musician was playing, the power of the Lord came on him. 2 Kings 3:13-15