Dear Editor:
A 30 C day like [Sunday] was a good excuse to pull up under the shade at a neighbourhood “house concert” and take in local, longtime favourite artist Shari Ulrich, playing to a socially distanced, masked audience in a backyard on 22nd Street East in the City of North Vancouver. [Resident Doug O’Neill regularly hosts these concerts, with proceeds to the artists.]
Besides a predictably great concert, we witnessed something rare and hopeful.
The next-door neighbour’s boys decided to dribble well-inflated basketballs as the concert began, while the adult revved his gas-powered string trimmer for the duration of the first two songs. When Shari poked her head over the fence and managed to get his attention (with difficulty over the engine sounds) he was unmoved and continued the noise, unabated. Visibly shaken and weeping through the lyrics of her next song, she stopped and asked the audience if we would accept a CD instead and should she stop the concert?
The response was a resounding “No!”
A group of women went to the neighbour’s yard with flowers and Shari, once more, mounted the step by the fence, and kindly spoke, with tears in her words, about how his behaviour affected her. And he was touched. At that moment, he turned off the motorized accompaniment, and allowed the concert to go on. He was moved by Shari’s genuine plea for mercy; by her gift of kind words and her turning of the other cheek.
The concert was wonderful, the host took great precautions for our well-being, and we all shared a moment of grace.
Louise Nicholson Bradley
North Vancouver
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