Amy Lu's View

For my customary performance at our church’s weekly COVID-era virtual coffee house this Saturday, I sang “Let It Be” while playing piano.

It’s a beautiful, timeless song, oh so appropriate to our current reality. (It was number 37 on the Current’s listener-created list of “893 Songs That Bring Us Together: https://www.thecurrent.org/list/893-songs-that-bring-us-together/). I hope hearing it was a small moment of uplift and peace for my virtual audience.

Performing it was moving for me, although I chose to do it primarily because I thought I could whip it into coffee house shape in a few days. (I have now exhausted my stock of songs–two–that I sort of had at the ready from when I took piano and voice lessons a few years ago. I’m going to need to practice a little harder if I’m going to keep up my piano lady aspirations, which of course I want to because I’ve never had the opportunity to stretch myself in this way before, and I do actually think I’m getting better).

I’ve loved the song “Let It Be” for years and years, since I was teenager (I actually could play a much more kickass version of it on the piano–without singing–as a teenager). My friend Jennifer and I even did a duet version of it on the vibes and–marimba?–hey, this was a long time ago and hard to remember–during our a high school “Salute to Seniors” concert. (Oh, another tangent in honor of the Class of 2020…I know I would have been so devastated not to have the Salute to Seniors concert and all the other rituals of senior year and graduation. Today’s seniors–high school and college–definitely have my sympathies and I hope you can still find ways to celebrate that will make you smile and cringe for years to come!)

So, ah, “Let It Be”…not only a heartfelt prayer and mediation for our times (I’m holding on to the chance that the broken-hearted people living in the world will see…) but also a poignant song about finding peace and comfort in the memory of your deceased mother. I’m totally down with that.

But to get literal…Mother Colleen (or Mama Houlleen as my then-toddler niece Kate called her) would NEVER advise us to “Let It Be.” That’s pretty much the antithesis of the Colleen Luedtke approach to life. My mom was all about tackling problems, making a plan, being busy and DOING THINGS.

Yes, this is basically the life philosophy passed on to me. And much of the time, it serves me–and the people I plan for, yes, that’s YOU, Chad–well. Except when it doesn’t. Except when I spin my wheels, obsess, agonize, fret, have insomnia, create endless complicated and goofy plans, etc., etc.

To draw wisdom from another song of the late 60’s era, to everything there is a season. (Yes, I know that’s actually from a bible verse but it wouldn’t have made much of an impact on me without the Byrd’s song so I’m giving them the credit). So there is a time to Let It Be and to NOT Let It Be (and yes, I know that is basically the Serenity Prayer) and I’m trying to expand my repertoire into the Let It Be realm as I get older. Hmm, all this extra time staying at home right now could be a good time for that…

Time to let this post be and go get something else done!