Yodeling on a mountain so high

When I was in junior high I spent two summers at Hummingbird Music Camp in New Mexico. It was a wonderful music camp. They had three bands, beginner, intermediate, and advanced, and you got to decide what band you thought you belonged in. There was no competition. It was all about enjoying the music.

If you were in the intermediate or advanced band you were expected to also perform a duet or small ensemble at the end of week concert. You could also choose starting Wednesday to spend your evenings learning a brand new instrument and would play a few songs at the concert with the other people who picked a new instrument. Thus my four days playing the violin and four days playing the cello.

The camp wasn’t all music. We also had hikes and campfires. And a major percentage of the silly songs I know were learned around those campfires.

One of those songs was about going yodeling on a mountain so high. And the way I heard it and understood it all those years until recently was that the song started, “Once an ostrich went yodeling on a mountain so high. When along game a cuckoo bird and erupted his cry”

I was recently informed that it was an Austrian that went yodeling. The person informing me of this couldn’t believe that I thought a yodeling ostrich made sense. It doesn’t. But then neither did the rest of the song so what did it matter. I think the image of an ostrich on the top of a mountain yodeling is quite enjoyable actually.

Songs are real easy to hear wrong. I’m convinced Lady Gaga is singing about being caught in a pair of pants. Some of those mis-hearings can be quite funny.

It’s like life though. We all have our own perception of things. You and I might be standing right next to each other looking at the exact same thing. But because of our own unique experiences and perspectives we’ll perceive what we are looking at in different ways. Those differences can be slight but they can also be large. And neither view would necessarily be wrong.

It’s just part of the beautiful kaleidoscope of life.