The Conductor by Gary Gocek

The Conductor by Gary Gocek - Return to "Gary's Personal Creed."

An orchestra conductor hired 200 musicians. At first, they all played in different musical keys, and even switched keys while playing. It sounded terrible. They held to an evil, selfish purpose, confident that in the large crowd no one could hear them individually.¹ The conductor convinced a dozen or so to play only in the key of C. In their corner of the orchestra, the sound was beautiful, but overall, the orchestra still sounded terrible. After a while, musicians near the group playing in C heard the beautiful music, so they, too, switched to the key of C. Overall, the orchestra still sounded terrible, but it was better than before. Gradually, more and more musicians heard the beautiful sound and switched to the key of C, and the conductor was confident that on some future day, all people would behold how good and how pleasant it is for all to play together in unity². After a long, long time, only a few stragglers still played in different keys. Previously, when only a few musicians played in the key of C, the conductor's options were limited; he needed a large number of players, so he pressed on through the cacophony. When almost all had switched to the key of C, the conductor rebuked the stragglers and they fled; the beauty of the sound of unity was as thunder to the stragglers, and they hurried away.³

1 - Psalm 64, ⁵They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, "Who can see us?"
2 - Psalm 133, ¹How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!
3 - Psalm 104,⁷At your rebuke they flee; at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.