I do not often repeat blog postings, although I was caught repeating use of a video on Ash Wednesday this year..

but, in searching for something else, I tripped across this May 27, 2009 entry and considered it worth repeating.

This is from the late, great Harry Chapin and it speaks about critics, which seem to sprout up in springtime like weeds. (Let the video load for a bit to skip ahead, the first 1:50 is band intros.)

“Unfortunately, his presentation was not up to contemporary professional standards. His voice lacks the range of tonal color necessary to make it consistently interesting.”

It is the Mr. Tanners that are worth noting not the critics.  Theodore Roosevelt said: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Sing it, Harry: Music was his life, it was not his livelihood, and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good. And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul. He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole.