the great leslie

The Riverside Ringers started off services at Riverside Church yesterday. This bell-ringing ensemble of about a dozen performed for 20 minutes. During this time, I was thinking that bell-ringing is sort of a unusual extracurricular activity.

Each performer made a choice to ring a bell in a group of other people ringing bells. They rehearse this. They tell their friends they are part of a bell-ringing troop, and send out mass e-mails to announce their bell-ringing performances.

Bell-ringing seems so simple. I mean, everybody can ring a bell (that's why so many angels have wings). But, it has to be done in tempo, and with grace. And when you bring together many bells, all of which ring in a different key, and try to make a song, it gets complicated. You have to practice. It's kind of, you know, like life. It's not so hard to ring your own bell, but it takes practice to be good at it and play it well with others.