… and what a return on investment!
I presented at the WIM/TUM meeting again today, and it went well. I covered the criteria for controlled documents, how to tell what IPD and TPDM deliverables and templates are mandatory, and how to determine reviewers and approvers for the various deliverables of projects. <sarcasm>Exciting stuff.</sarcasm>
I left work at about 10:30 and headed to Gray Stone Baptist Church in Durham to attend Mac McBroom’s Memorial Service. What a great service. What a loved, and respected man. There were two things that I loved about the service — Madeleine, being the “communications person” that she is, created a “handout,” which talked about Mac’s life, with all kinds of tidbits about him. I am now rethinking my plans, as the idea of creating a document is very appealing to me. 🙂 They also had a slide show of pictures of Mac’s life cycling through, with two Celine songs playing in the background — Because You Loved Me and I think the other one was The Power of Love. Anyway, it was very moving. My heart felt very warm there, and it made me sad that I had never met Mac. There was a reception directly after the service, but I stayed just long enough to give Madeleine a hug.
I got back to work at about 12:45, had lunch, and then joined Mel in his meeting with Vanadis. We talked about Mel’s taking over the ID Process Champion role from Vanadis. I was just there to make sure my manager didn’t sign up for anything he shouldn’t. 🙂
I left work at about 5:15, and drove to Robert’s. He was having his dinner, and I heated up my food — the Teriyaki Chicken entree, which I’ve had before now, and is good, but not delicious. I had those absolutely delicious chocolates for dessert.
I dialed into a work call from 6pm – 7pm, and am ambivalent about the time spent on it. Glad I did, but didn’t get much out of it, really.
We left for Page Auditorium at about 7:15. We parked one car on Ninth Street, and then continued to Duke. The parking absolutely sucked there, enough to make me not want to order tickets to any more performances there. I mean if you can’t provide decent public parking…
The Soweto Gospel Choir was absolutely phenomenal. Oh my god. Since I bought my tickets back in October, we were in the center section of the first row. If you ever have any doubt that a higher being is present on this earth, go see this group perform. Most of the women in the group did some kind of solo at one time or another. Each one that came forward, I thought, okay this one might be a little weak. Then, her mouth would open, and heaven’s voice was piped in. One after the other, magnificent. Each could easily be a solo star in her own right. Toward the beginning, one of the members, who looked like she was about 16 came forward. I was absolutely stunned by what I heard. At the end of her song, I just shook my head back and forth like, What in the world was that? Did that come out of her body? I later read that she is the youngest member of the choir, and is actually 18. She was the kind of person that you could not stop watching the entire night. Riveting. She made some wonderful facial expressions and body movements… you felt that her entire being was in her joy in singing. And that voice.
The highlight for me, and most of the crowd evidently, was the choir’s rendition of Amazing Grace. Four of the members came forward, a soprano, an alto, a tenor and a base, and they sang with the choir behind them to the most unbelievably moving piece of music I’ve heard in my entire life — and I’m old, and I’ve been to a lot of performances. I had tears down my face near the end, and I wasn’t the only one. This was sound that moved you to that point. Like, something is going on here. Even though this piece was just before intermission, it received a significant standing ovation. Robert said, “That has got to be the best version of Amazing Grace I have ever heard in my life.” I loved where it took my heart.
So, I hated missing class tonight for “a show,” but I did purchase the tickets before I even had my spring schedule, and my brain has been getting enough of a workout lately, anyway. This night was good for my heart.