singing

When I was six years old, I would wait for the school bus at the end of my driveway, and every morning, I would make up little songs daily, singing to God. I don’t remember at all what sorts of things I would sing but I know it wasn’t praise choruses or something like that (there was no 7-11 music, i.e. seven words sung eleven times). I think I would just tell stories but sing them.

Anyway, one night a neighbor was taking an evening walk. She was someone who lived not on my street but on the street well behind my house. She saw me outside, and she said, “I hear you singing every morning.” Of course, she was delighted to say this a six year old, but I was mortified to learn I was that loud.

If you fast forward all these decades later, I’ve had two, quirky, overly-specific hobbies over the last year and a half. Since January 1, 2023, I have spent a solid hour+ per day learning German. I am about 30 days away from finishing German DuoLingo, and it’s very satisfying. (Es ist sehr zufriedenstellend!) Meanwhile, since I bought my e-bike last September, I’ve been biking to the streets in my town in alphabetical order. I’m about mid-way through the Cs.

We had a big heatwave recently, so I found myself riding my bike in the early morning, and whatever time of day it is, if I may reveal something silly, when I’m on my bike, I sometimes zoom down the street, singing in German. (Keine sieben-elf musik.) I just find myself singing auf Deutsch about things I see while I Zoom past.

I’m not so loud this time. No one can hear me but the wind in my face. But I’m having fun. And suddenly, making a turn down a particular street, I remembered being six at the edge of my driveway, and I thought, “Oh, this is a throughline.”

Renee, you’re a delightful weirdo. A weirdo, who loves spotting things that delight. And… singing about it. Warum nicht?

—Renee Roederer