On Saturday night I went to see the comedian Paula Poundstone. She is an eccentric and quirky personality, and it is partly her unabashed oddness that makes me laugh until my face hurts. Her spontaneous exchanges with audience members are nothing short of genius. She talked about her very fat cat. She ribbed a veterinarian in the audience. She spoke with a thirteen-year old in the third row. And she mused about the current state of the world.
At the very end of the show, Poundstone shared that years ago she had seen Pete Seeger sing "We Shall Overcome." And before each verse, he'd shouted out the words for everyone to sing along. Just before the final verse he'd yelled to the crowd: "We are not afraid! -- except that we are afraid! Because we're human!" And then he sang...
Poundstone broke into song: "We are not afraid!" And within an instant, the entire theater had joined her in singing, low and strong:
We are not afraid! We are not afraid, today!
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,
We shall overcome, some day.
And then Poundstone waved and walked off the stage, and hundreds of people jumped to their feet and burst into applause. I don't know if we were giving HER a standing ovation, although she was very funny. I think we were celebrating this unexpected, shared, sacred moment. Hundreds of strangers, singing a memory-laden song of peace and hope. It was glorious.
