A friend shared a Facebook post by Richard Swan (in the fun group Dull Men’s Club) today, talking about how vanishingly few people are tone deaf, and most people can sing.

I take the view that singing is an outpouring of the soul and one of the cruellest things a person can do is to tell someone else that they can’t sing, so this is a topic that is very close to my heart.

My interest was piqued so I went searching to find out more about Richard Swan. He’s also written a book for people who think they can’t sing, which looks very worthwhile. And in my travels I found this podcast about his deconstruction journey and wanted to share it.

He talks about the human need for community, which is something that comes up in the excellent book I’m currently reading by Moss Matthey, An Apostate’s Guide to Witchcraft. And he talks about his love for music and how making and sharing music is about community. Hear, hear!

I also found this lovely video of him getting a bunch of people to sing A-wimba-wei.

I love hearing and reading about other people’s deconstruction journeys, especially when you get the sense that their minds opened and their lives blossomed into joy as a result. They escaped from the narrow confines of high control evangelical culture and started living. Amazing stuff. Like the bit in the movie Paul where the alien heals Ruth the fundamentalist by doing a memory transfer of all his knowledge.

I’ll post a review of Moss Matthey’s book soon.