My New Hero

I had the most wonderful experience tonight! If you ever in your life have the opportunity to meet Janice Kapp Perry and don't take it, I will personally come knock you on the head (JaNel and Vo, you didn't know this time, but in the future there are no excuses!). She is an inspiration to me, and I truly believe her words tonight have come at a pivotal point in my life as I rebuild the new structure atop my recently exposed, though sure, foundation.

What do I admire about Janice Kapp Perry? She is comfortable in her own skin (another thing that's on my Bucket List). She loves sports and pitched for city leagues, played volleyball, racquetball & basketball. She began writing music when she broke her foot playing bball, and her tv broke at the same time. =o) She was asked to write music for the roadshow, which won, "so I was hooked. I was competitive." I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but her real, humble, playful mannerisms made listening to her a pure joy.

"I want to add to the simple music of the church," she had decided. Her secret goal: that the children of the church will sing a song she wrote. (I have a similar secret goal.) When it happened, she admitted that she had no idea that she could do that.

She talked about how she read a book (which I just bought) Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, and how she ended up singing with MoTab. "You don't let people in just because they can sight read and blend, do you?" she had asked before she tried out. "We often do," was the reply. "If everyone had a trained voice, it wouldn't be the right blend." When hearing an auditioner in front of her with an incredible voice, she almost left. But her husband was there to stop her. "My fears almost kept me from the best 5 1/2 musical years of my life," she told us. "Don't let your fears hold you back!"

I can't tell you how much I loved seeing her incredible, sweet and fun relationship with her husband. "I tell you in all sincerity, there would be no music without him," she said, as she thanked him for being at her side. He ran the sound for her tonight. He watched her with such kind eyes. He's probably seen this talk 1,000 times. He's probably heard those songs more than Christine's listened to NKOTB. And yet there was such admiration, playfulness, love and life in his eyes for her. And her for him. They are in their 70's. (I'm wondering what a man like that--and President Dimond--looks like at 30? Any insight into this, please leave a comment).

She wrote a family song and played/sang it for us in her over-70-year-old voice. It was funny (the song, not her voice). Her husband has a 3-note range, so his part was to tell her "I love you" in his 3 notes. Which, despite suffering recently from severe health problems, he got up and sang and danced his way back to his seat at the sound system. She challenged us all to write our own family song. What a fun tool for family unity.

Janice-isms:
*WORK HARD, AND BE AT PEACE.
*Don't let your fears hold you back!
*RISK A LITTLE! You never hear people at the end of their lives saying, 'I wish I'd done less.' They regret playing it safe.
*Have fun with your talents
*You're never to old to learn something new.
* Develop your talents. You'll be surprised how far it will go.
* Music is one of the best tools to get the gospel inside of us. (We have a retention of 20% with prose, 35% with poetry, and when set to music...an astounding 70-90%!)

"It doesn't matter that we have the most beautiful voice. It matters that we have something to sing about," she said, quoting Lloyd Newell from a recent Music and the Spoken Word program with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. (She must have read my blog...) And going on, she added, "And in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have much to sing about!"

I agree with her, with all the song of my heart.