The second voice
Every morning at the subway station, I see this group of elderly men singing old songs, always smiling, and I enjoy it a lot. Well, today a lady (maybe one of the passengers) wanted to sing. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and started to sing the words out loud. She started well, but after the first sentence, her voice became a little weaker – perhaps from the silence around her, perhaps from the fact that she felt conscious of being the only one singing. And every word became quieter and quieter. But then suddenly, one of the elderly men joined her, and started singing with her. And she smiled, and her voice grew stronger, and stronger. And she sang the song with all her enthusiasm. For the first time, I realized how important that second voice is, encouraging, guiding, giving new power. I mean I’ve always been very irritated at being dependent on someone else for anything I do or anything I feel, but this incident brought a warm feeling within.