Who has the power?

Friendship, song, and connection

A dear and long-time friend celebrated her birthday recently. There were perhaps a dozen of us at her house, food catered from a local Lebanese restaurant, soft music, always the background sound of several voices at once. We all knew each other, and the group organically developed 4 or 5 “pods” of conversation. At one point in the evening she rang a small bell and encouraged us to change-up the groups, which we did in a chaotic, joyful thirty seconds or so.

It was all just what one would want in a gathering of this kind, plus several songs sung in her honor.

She sent the group text a few days after, thanking us. She said that one of her favorite things to do is to sing with others, and that she appreciated the storytelling and the humor that evening. She concluded saying that she hadn’t laughed that much in a while and that it was “good for the soul.”

My wife Busy and I went to another gathering recently. This was a potluck (I baked an apple pie). We knew the host and only a few other people. I am not what you would call a great mixer at such events — so it was notable that I had as many interesting conversations as I did, with people I did not know. But that’s the kind of group it was — sociable, kind, and open to connecting, both with the knowns and unknowns.

When we were doing our good-byes, we learned from our host that this was the inaugural event. She had decided that the theme of this year was “friendship.” She envisioned a rolling set of potlucks, at different people’s houses, over the course of the year. The aim, as she put it, is to “broaden and deepen our friendships and community connections.”

Even with a sample size of two parties, I want to extrapolate a theme. In this dark time of year, in a troubling time in history, we the people are looking for all the ways at our disposal — large and little — to counteract the seemingly unrestrainable forces of division, hatred and dissolution that we all feel closing in.

I can hear the skeptics: You see all this from a couple of parties?

OK. I have one more – Aubrey Atwater. She is a community song leader and music therapist who was the featured artist on the Daily Antidote of Song, an online “sing along” event which happens every day at noon.

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I would normally put this in a footnote, but it is important enough to elaborate here. The Daily Antidote of Song was launched in April 2020 by our friend Jo Rasi as a simple yet powerful response to isolation and fear. The program continues today — 2,118 consecutive days as of this posting — with a mission to promote peace and justice, joy and connection.

A program of Carpe Diem Arts, it features diverse folk and traditional music from many cultures alongside songs for social justice. Each weekday (12:00–12:30 pm ET) a host welcomes the visiting artist(s), who teach one or two songs, invite participants to sing along (muted) using lyrics in the chat, and reflect on their creative work and inspirations before a final reprise. To date, more than 700 hosts and recording artists from five continents — including several Grammy winners — have shared their voices and stories. People have tuned in from all 50 states and 30+ countries. It’s pretty amazing. Check it out here.

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On this particular day (Jan 12, 2026) Aubrey Atwater was the featured artist, coming to us live from Wharton, Rhode Island. Her instrument was the Appalachian lap dulcimer, and she briefly talked about her work at Boston Children’s Hospital, considered by many to be the premier pediatric hospital in the nation. Her first song My Bonny Bonny Boat was about Ida Lewis, the famous and intrepid lighthouse keeper from Newport, RI who saved over 80 people in her career. From her Wikipedia page: “Lewis made her first rescue in 1854, coming to the assistance of four men whose boat had capsized. She was 12 years old.”

Aubrey Atwater acknowledged that what she is doing might seem incongruous to some:

You might think “Wow, a person singing in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) about a lighthouse keeper? In the 19^th century?” But how lovely that these can go together!

She comes from, as she says, “a very salty family,” immersed as it were in the world of fishing and boats. Ballast is a weight within a boat that helps give stability, especially in turbulent times. She had this to say about singing.

My job in a way is about joy and not just any kind of joy — human joy as a ballast to good work and action. And so that’s where I think we musicans can figure in, whether for activisim or for the hardships of the human experience. To bring beauty and joy.

Her second tune was a Scottish lullaby Hush the Waves.

I sing lullabies to all people and we all benefit from the soothing qualities of music. I love the science behind this. When I sing in the intensive Care Unit of the Children’s Hospital, I can see the child’s vitals changing before my eyes on the monitors — the heart rate getting calmer, the blood pressure going down, the oxygen level going up.

Is it possible? That in the face of such outward turmoil, these supposedly small acts can make a difference?

Maybe a small difference, but maybe enough ballast to our boats that we can keep going, connecting each other — and maybe sometimes saving each other — one song at a time.

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Note

Aubrey Atwater’s appearance on The Daily Antidote of Song is on Facebook here. The songs are at 3:38 and 17:50.

A sample of artists from this week on The Daily Antidote of Song