When Jung and I met our daughters at school today, they both told us that their day was awful. Although the list of unfortunate events was long, their bad day began for both of them with a single, shared incident, and much of their ensuing misfortune had roots in what happened in the morning.

Our daughters’ grade is putting on a musical about the American Revolution and although most of the show is pre-written, a few students who did not get their preferred role in the existing script were encouraged to write a scene for themselves. Our daughter S and two of her friends were in this group and they had “extras” to help them: classmates like J who already had a substantial role so would play only a small, supporting role in this scene.

After the script was completed, two of the “extras” decided that they wanted a starring role in this scene as well and began to lobby to change the script in their favor. This has caused some amount of stress for S in particular and today, S and J were complaining to each other about this situation during rehearsal. Unbeknownst to them, the complaining was bothering their classmate, “V.”

Instead of confronting S and J with her concerns, V went to their teacher who kept S, J and V after class to tell S and J that V didn’t like their “sarcasm” and had S and J apologize to V. S and J readily admit to complaining (although they don’t see the problem with expressing their displeasure) but deny that there were employing sarcasm (although they don’t see the problem with the use of sarcasm per se either). Besides, their teacher is well-known for her prodigious and entertaining use of sarcasm herself!

S and J were incensed by the time we got home. They are currently learning about the writing of the U. S. Constitution and they felt that a number of their rights had been violated including their right to free speech and their right to habeas corpus. They also suspect that V had ulterior motives in trying to stop S and J from complaining about the script and they were particularly frustrated with their teacher listening to V only and not giving them a chance to defend themselves.

This whole situation was especially hard on S who has a strong sense of justice as well as strong reactions to not being heard. It put her on edge and opened her up to merciless teasing and to being mimicked by her classmates for the rest of the day.

As they said, their day was awful.

I, however, had a fantastic day due to the effect of their misfortune on J’s creativity. All of J’s pent up frustration and anger burst out in song. Inspired by what happened and how she felt, she wrote a song unbelievably quickly and completely. As J herself said tonight: “It’s amazing how much a girl can do when she’s angry.” Her song sounds like it should be part of a musical or a movie and I worked with her to transcribe it and polish it and to get her input on the harmonies I chose.

My words fail me when I try to express how much this evening’s collaboration with my daughter meant to me. I felt like everything came together for me and that J and I connected in an entirely new way through a shared love of music. It shows me that my music studies have truly become integrated with my family and are not just “my career.”

I am exhausted from the emotional roller-coaster I’ve been on since picking up our daughters at school, but I am also walking on air. I will remember this day for a long, long time: the day that J wrote her first truly original song.

J gave me permission to share the lyrics and the lead sheet for “The Hypocrite.” I hope you enjoy it!

A hypocrite she is.
A hypocrite she’ll stay.
She lacked the might 
To see the light
And ruined SoSo’s day.

She blamed us of a crime
We didn’t even do.
Our rights were thieved,
The “judge” deceived,
That day I’ll always rue.

Kissing up to spoiled brats,
With the morals of dead rats.
Stupid gossip did abound;
Malign words did go around.
Purposeless and pointless too,
My hatred for them grew.

Then bullies with weak minds
Made fun of when she cried.
Their malice hurt,
‘Cause I’m alert;
She felt like she had died.

My hatred is so strong,
I’ll light a funeral pyre!
With all my hate,
They need this fate.
I’ll watch them catch on fire.