Population Matters-USA

Sing
© Richard Grossman MD, 2009

“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”
“Practice, practice, practice” – Old joke

There is evidence that singing, especially in a chorus, is good for one’s health. My wife and I joined the Durango Choral Society shortly after moving to Durango. Recently members of DCS had the chance of a lifetime to sing in Carnegie Hall!
The reason we sing has little to do with health benefits, although they are a welcome side effect of doing what we enjoy. Health advantages include decreased blood pressure, better posture and breathing, improved immunity and the release of “feel good” endorphins. These effects help account for several advantages noted in a study of elderly singers. These seniors, averaging 80 years old, had fewer doctor visits, took less medication and were less depressed than age matched control subjects who did not sing or participate in music or art.
When I was in high school I was chosen to sing in our school’s select choir. I am not all that great a musician, but Miss Brewer must have seen some unrealized promise in me. She gave me a good start as a choral singer.
Diane Estes VanDenBerg was the conductor of DCS for many years. One of the most amazing experiences of my life was to sing two exciting performances with the great jazz musician Dave Brubeck. I can still remember the thrill of seeing Dave, seated at the piano, turn to the chorus while we were singing “To Hope” and beam us a beatific smile.
Dr. Linda Mack Berven, professor of music at Fort Lewis College, is the group’s current director. Although she is as an accomplished pianist and a superb soprano, her forte is teaching vocal music. She wrote her doctoral thesis on leading community choral groups, which she does with great skill and infectious enthusiasm.
Part of our conductor’s success is her candor. Yes, she is technically excellent and demands a lot from us. But what makes her so successful is that she lets the love and enthusiasm that she feels for the music show. This openness is refreshing, and has encouraged us to improve constantly. We also know that she knows and cares about each of us individually, and delights at the improvement of each member of the chorus.
Linda points out that singing is a very personal extension of an individual’s ego, and that we allow ourselves to be more vulnerable when we sing than when playing a musical instrument. Fortunately members of the choral society have a feeling of community that counteracts this vulnerability. Friendship is an important part of any community chorus, and is strong in DCS. Each individual feels supported by the whole team as we share our joys and grief.
We are amazingly lucky to have Dr. Mack Berven in Durango. I have feared that she would be lured away by a prestigious university, but she reassures me that she loves teaching in a smaller school. From little Durango she has built a national reputation, having sung several times at Carnegie Hall, led the Desert Chorale in Santa Fe and sung with the famous Robert Shaw Chorale in Europe.
Linda got her musical start from nuns who taught her piano at Catholic school in Chicago. Her first teaching job was in high school, where some of her students were on fire for music. She knew that she wanted to prepare and inspire music teachers, so she went on to graduate school.
Dr. Mack Berven has inspired lots of college students to be music teachers during her 27 years here. We have gotten to know many` of them since they have sung with the DCS. Several were with us during the arduous rehearsals preparing for our trip to New York.
There we were at Carnegie Hall, looking out at a full house. The decorations were beautiful and the acoustics perfect. The orchestra and soloists sounded first rate. Our conductor was John Rutter who rehearsed us carefully over the prior two days. An internationally famous British choral conductor and composer, we were initially anxious if we were up to Rutter’s high standards. We knew that we had succeeded when the performance received a standing ovation—unusual at Carnegie Hall.
Rutter later wrote us “Congratulations and thank you all for what turned out to be a splendid performance of the Mozart Requiem.” Linda talks frequently about “raising the bar.” Indeed, she has raised the level of performance of the Choral Society by many notches since she has been leading it.

This article may be copied or published but must remain intact, with attribution to the author. I also request that the words “First published in the Durango Herald” accompany any publication. For more information, please write the author at: richard@population-matters.org.

Pay Attention to Children
© Richard Grossman MD, 2009

We are faced with a global tragedy with climate change and decreasing supplies of fossil fuel. Despite a few people who deny that any problem exists, most scientists are expecting the world’s future to be very different from the reality that we have enjoyed.
The basic problem is that we are expecting the planet to support too many people who consume too much. I have written frequently about population and ways to slow its growth, and a bit about limiting consumption. These concerns are not so much for my generation, but for the future—our children and especially grandchildren. Perhaps we can not only live for them, but also learn from them.
I recommend Global Warming for Kids: http://globalwarmingkids.net/. It is a wonderful way to inspire children, and teachers will find it to be a great resource.
There are many examples of kid environmental heroes. Savannah Walters, when she was just nine years old, started the “Pump ’em Up” campaign. She was concerned about the proposals to drill for oil in the arctic, and realized that we could conserve millions of gallons of petroleum daily if all vehicle tires were properly inflated. “In second grade we studied the Arctic and its animals,” she wrote. “I wanted to protect that environment and then learned we could also save people money and cut down on air pollution too.”
The organization’s url is www.pumpemup.org . Not only does it tell the advantages of running a vehicle with full pressure in its tires, but it gives step by step instructions that any child (or adult) can follow to check and inflate tires properly. I carry a tire pressure gauge in my car for this purpose.
Advantages of carrying the correct pressure include better handling (and safety), longer tire life, saving money on gas and decreasing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
According to Savannah, the pressure in tires should be checked when they are cold, and should be done every month. The correct pressure can be found in the vehicle’s handbook or on a tag attached to the driver’s side door frame.
BP&J (peanut butter and jelly sandwich) is the longtime kids’ favorite lunch. Surprisingly, it is also the focus of another environmental campaign. Compared to a hamburger or a tuna sandwich, a PB&J is much more earth-friendly. The people at the PB&J Campaign have calculated that consuming this kids’ delight reduces carbon dioxide emissions by two and a half pounds compared to a meat or fish meal. Feeding lunches to a family of four over the span of a year, that would be a ton and a half of greenhouse gas averted! Part of the savings is from not using animal-based products, and part is from avoiding cooking.
Tired of PB&J? (When I was a kid I had a half a PB&J sandwich in my lunch every day, and never lost the taste for them.) The campaign’s website, www.pbjcampaign.org, gives lots of alternative recipes and information about the advantages of eating plant-based foods. It also has a blog that includes interesting opinions and information such as “Save the planet with beans.”
Colin Carlson is another kid with an environmental mission. Colin founded the Cool Coventry (Connecticut) Club as a school service project when he was in high school. His motto is: “One person can make a difference—I can, and so can you.” The goal of this prize-winning project is to increase awareness of global climate change, and to encourage people to reduce their energy use.
Tehreem Rehman of New York is another future environmental leader. She was inspired to start Long Island Teen Environmental Activists. Among the goals of this group is to convince local school districts to implement district-wide recycling program. “I am part of the next generation to inhabit the earth. Preserving our environment is essential. There is no planet B.”
Locally there are many young environmental activists. One example is Columbine Christian School’s annual Earth Day River Clean-up. This year more than 85 kids helped gather trash beside the Animas along the bike path. This was the eighth year for this project, and they did a clean sweep from 32nd Street to the Durango Mall.
The examples above are of kids who may end up as leaders of the future environmental movement. I hope that they take better care of their world than we have of ours. I am ashamed that we will hand over the planet to them in worse shape than we received it from our parents.

This article may be copied or published but must remain intact, with attribution to the author. I also request that the words “First published in the Durango Herald” accompany any publication. For more information, please write the author at: richard@population-matters.org.