Singing the message

Dec 21, 2008

Yesterday, these two NPR segments had me laughing, crying and altogether enjoying life: Mavis Staples on Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and seven-year-old pianist Ethan Bortnick on Weekend Edition Saturday.

When Staples talked about meeting Martin Luther King, Jr. for the first time, and how her father said of King, “I like this man’s message, and if he can preach it, we can sing it,” I lifted my hands off my steering wheel and clapped, clapped, clapped (listen at about minute 5 to hear the King story).

And then, listen to Scott Simon break into song as Bortnick plays a great version of a Jewish folk song.

Anton Zuiker ☄