to hear the song sung, in an old Nelson Eddy movie. The lyrics to the refrain are:
Mighty stream so deep and wide
Volga Volga you're our pride
Heave ho, heave ho
Now, you can do this exercise I use in my Emotional Intelligence training, and in courses and seminars. In this painting, we see a team at work, doing manual labor. You can probably identify some of the people in the painting. Who is the young golden boy? The one at the rear who seems about to collapse? The leader in the front, old, but apparently doing fine? Which one is you?
Now, on a blog entitled "Volga Boatman," a member of the clergy writes:
"Thinking about liturgical music, the Volga boatmen came to mind. Somewhere in the dim recesses of my mind is an image of men on a towpath, dragging a boat through a canal, accompanied by 'Yo, heave, ho.' And there are times when I feel like one of the guys on the rope line. Dragging the congregation through a Mass, dragging a choir through a new hymn or setting. But those are nothing compared to the way it's going to feel when we try to move forward from what many refer to as 'the four-hymn Mass' to 'ritual music.'
"Anyone who works in the church music world knows that after almost every Mass, someone comes up and tells you that she loves the music because it's strong/tender/enlivening/comforting/'real Catholic music'/up-to-date, etc.
That individual is followed by someone who hates it. It's too loud/soft/fast/slow/traditional/modern/hard-to-sing,etc.
[I used to be the Outreach Director for a church and greeted people as they came in the sanctuary. I would hear, "It's too hot in here/just right in here for once/freezing cold in here." Everyone should have this experience in order to understand what "leadership" is all about.]
