Going Solo

A poignant moment from an article about music producer Quincy Jones, in the Orlando Sunday paper last weekend … The man they call Q nodded at the cell phone, saying “I’ve deleted 188 names this year. That’s what happens when you’re 77, man … you start playing in bands and doing duets, and then you worry that in the end, it’s all going to be a solo.”

I’ve never had to delete a number from my phone due to a death. The closest I’ve come has been revising a Christmas list now and again, for the death of a spouse. But it’s the last line that caught my eye … “in the end, it’s all going to be a solo.”

No matter how we look at it, in the end we each will indeed be going solo. Or at least that may be what we think, or what we fear. But while that is our destiny, there will be a companion with us, unseen but always at our side. We are in fact always playing in a duet. It is our faith that can lend us grace at the end of our song. Our duet can be never ending, full of surprise and wonder, if we but believe. We may have even more than we expect. Maybe even a band of family members waiting and heavenly music we have never heard … not at all the sound of going solo.