Sounds Familiar

As I blared the You Tube audio toward the phone, I thought I heard my mothers faint voice humming.
"Are you singing along?"
"Yes."
"Are you saluting?"
"No."
"Oh that's right. You aren't supposed to salute until the end."

Going back a bit.

Last night at the gym, I pumped iron as I listened to the 2010 winter game closing ceremony in Canada. Suddenly, I heard something. Well a choir, but more. Something familiar and unfamiliar all at once. Something that faintly filled me with pride and the desire to cry and salute. An a Capella choir beautifully sang a song that had buried itself so deeply into my Psyche that it probably sat on the brain cell adjacent to the memory of being breast fed. Buried so deep, it wasn't even a memory but a visceral reaction.

I wandered toward the flat screen softly mouthing, "Momma?"

What was I hearing? Is that Russian? Are those Russian's singing.....singing?....yes.....singing the national anthem.

It was shocking. Patriotism, real patriotism is absolutely not a choice, not a decision but a Pavlovian trigger.

I went home and googled "Russian National Anthem Choir". I was led to the recordings of the Red Army Choir. Another flood of familiar sound. I found my way to their rendition of Kalinka ( a traditional folk tune) and emailed it to my mother. She asked how I came to look for Kalinka on you tube and I told her my journey over the last 24 hours. Then I turned on the Russian National Anthem. Oddly enough, the two defectors (one of whom had faced the KGB and the risk of loosing everything including "disappearing" just to escape the motherland) automatically began singing along.

Go figure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLi_m656tQQ