Taking the Bitter with the Sweet

This isn’t a post on the sweetness.  It’s more about the bittersweet tenderness that can come from being part of a ward full of people.

You are in a very small ward with little musical talent.  Your daughter plays the organ, your other daughter conducts, your wife plays the piano for primary, your other daughter is the primary chorister.  You are of less account.  But you did put together a ward choir for Christmas despite no skill or experience along those lines.

Then the ward burgeons.  Dozens of new people move in within a year.

One is a lady who has a degree in choral something.  She has Opinions.  She expresses them.  Especially to the Bishopric.  They appoint her to be in charge of all music in the ward.  She makes herself the new ward chorister and primary chorister.  She changes lots of things because the were done Wrong before.  She suggests Improvements in the playing of your daughter and your wife.  She offers to give them lessons.  Irritatingly, not all her changes are bad ideas.  Some of them are good ideas your family tried to implement and met with resistance.  Some of them are good ideas you didn’t think of.  Irritatingly, she sometimes tries to be tactful.

Your dominant emotion is not bitterness or anger.  It is tenderness.  Tenderness without a clear object.  Do you feel tender for her?  For your family?  Or for the whole human condition?