From the President

Mark Peters

One of my favorite albums right now is Ruth Moody’s These Wilder Things (2013), which I’ve especially been listening to with my oldest daughter, Elyssa. The album begins with these words:

This world is full of trouble and woe,
This world is full of trouble and woe,
All I see is trouble everywhere I go,
I’m gonna sing the trouble that I know.

Ain’t that the truth. But I’m not using this song to wallow in the uncertainties and tragedies of our current world (I can do that without a song!). The song is actually a beautiful message of hope that claims us as co-workers for a better future. In the spirit of the Blues, “Trouble and woe” names what is wrong with the world, then sings through the trouble to a place of hope. The present realities haven’t changed, but our perspective on them has.

This world is full of promise and love,
This world is full of promise and love,
Promise of a new day with no dark clouds above,
I’m gonna sing that world I’m dreaming of.

May this be true for us in the work of Christian scholarship in music, that we sing toward and work toward the world we’re dreaming of. May it also be true that through this work we continually remind students, colleagues, fellow scholars, and ourselves of this vision.

I am grateful for the work of so many in the SCSM this year who are doing this for our society. I’m grateful for the recent work of the program committee and the nominating committee, as well as the executive committee’s ongoing work to envision our first online conference in February.

Yes, this world is full of trouble and woe. But we’re going to sing the world we’re dreaming of.

Peace,
Mark

Mark Peters is professor of music and director of the Center for Teaching and the Good Life at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, IL.