This joke has been around for a very long time. A tourist gets out of cab on 57th Street in New York City and asks a passerby “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” The person replies “Practice, Practice, practice!” The joke is so old and has been repeated so often, that it even has a place on Carnegie Hall’s website. If you have ever had the opportunity to see a performance at the famed and historic concert venue, then you undoubtedly agree that the musicians have spent an entire lifetime ‘practicing, practicing, practicing’ to perform on that hallowed stage. When you wait and work your whole life for such a prestigious honor, then you do not let anything stand in your way. That tenacity, dedication and commitment were on full display this past weekend when the lights went out in NYC and the Millennial Choir and Orchestra’s performance at Carnegie Hall was cancelled due to the complete blackout that took place in the city.
The power outage, which was responsible for shutting down a large section of NYC, including all of Broadway, lasted for over five hours. Theaters, restaurants and bars were evacuated throughout the city and tens of thousands of people were sent out into the completely dark streets. Ticket-holders who had spent lots of money for shows (including Jennifer Lopez’s concert at Madison Square Garden) were told they would receive refunds....which seems like an obvious response, but it still doesn’t make up for missing what was perhaps your 'one-and-only' opportunity to see a long-awaited Broadway show or concert. Some may have even traveled all the way to NYC for the weekend just for the show.
The Millennial Choir and Orchestra (MCO) showed their audience the true meaning of the phrase “the show must go on”. They set up a 'makeshift stage' outside Carnegie Hall and performed on the street for all of their ticket holders. Fans took video footage of the performance and over 2 million people have already viewed the videos on line. Actors, actresses and musicians from the 27 cancelled Broadway shows did the exact same thing.
Do you have a “show must go on” attitude or are you more of a “throw in the towel” person? If you got to the gym and the power was out, would you see that as a sign that you were not meant to exercise that day or would you take your workout to the streets like the performers did on Saturday night? If your stove wasn’t working, would you gather up all the veggies in your fridge and make a big salad for dinner, or would you be on your way to go get fast food quicker than you could say “would you like fries with that?”
There is a famous quote attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. that goes: “the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Power outages, like natural disasters, provide us with a great opportunity to ask ourselves how we would handle things if we were challenged. Would we be prepared? Would we rise to the occasion and take the opportunity to do what would be considered the equivalent to singing and dancing in the streets? My challenge to you this week is to give some thought to how you would handle yourself during times of challenge and controversy. Are you living your life in a way that allows you to be the calm in the center of a storm? Or do you think that you are just one mini-crisis away from collapse?
One of the songs that MCO performed on the street on Saturday night was “I Stand All Amazed”. What a perfectly apropos song given the circumstances. The non-profit choir and orchestra, made up primarily of young people, came all the way from Utah to perform at Carnegie Hall. When their “big night” was ruined, they let nothing stop them from living out their dream. The millions of people who have watched their performance are the ones that ‘stand all amazed.’
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? The same way you accomplish anything worthwhile, you practice and you don’t let anything stand in your way.