Pentecostal Piano Playing

I'VE JUST ABOUT DECIDED, the more I think about it, that I could probably be happy immersed in any religion in the world. Of the several thousand religions in the world, I could embrace any of them. I'm just guesing that most other people are the same way, whether or not they know and admit it. The sense of community would be similar or the same among them all, and the comfort and inspiration which derives from religious devotion would be present in any religion, I assume. One of the benefits of my religiosity, the "pantheism" of Spinoza and Einstein is that, I have discovered, it leaves one free to embrace any religion one chooses,one religion, or perhaps more than one, perchance, all of them. Whether it is logically or cognitively possible to simultaneously embrace more than one religion is, well, an entirely different matter...Thus my weekly participation in gospel singing, despite my relative antipathy towards the Christian religion. Whether there are about four thousand religions in the word or more, Christianity would probably be among the last I would choose, among the more difficult for me to embrace. A spiritual, religious philospohical tradition, like Buddhism, is more to my liking. I have heard it suggested that one can be a buddhist and simultaneously embrace any other religion in the world. One can be a buddhist and a Christian at the same time, so goes the ideal, an ideal which might appeal more to liberal buddhists than right wing pentecostals. So when I arrived at gospel singing Monday morning and found out that our piano player was in the hospital I was dismayed, but also intrigued when I also found out that a replacement had been found. A guest piano player player at gospel singing kind of messes things up, makes it a bit difficult to sing with a different style pianist, but, at the same time, gives us a new experience, a change of pace, and interesting variety. Our regular pianist is going to be fine. An eighty eight year old lady in good nealth, she was experiencing a bit of heart fib, and was having it corrected in the hospital. Piece of cake. She'll be back at the keyboard in a jiffy. The replacement lady walked in to the senior center all ebullient, in her ankle length nineteenth century dress and hair bun atop head, with thick rimmed glasses. This, I thougt, is a real, dyed in the wool church lady. And indeed so it seemed to turn out. Her piano playing style was pure pentecostal, if there is such a sytle, which there is.. Fast, and loud. I am told that our hymnal, which after three years of gospel singing I am beginning to become familair with, is a baptist hymnal. I wouldn't know one kind from another, of course. The church I attend, a Presbyterian church, uses a much larger hymnal, with totally different songs, all foreign to me. That's all I know. I mean this pentecostal lady played hard, loud, and fast, and those baptist hymns moved along at double time, with a renewed vigor. We all sang loud, and fast. I could get used to it that way. The lady, who from the back looked like Aunt Bea sitting on the bench, was on the verge of bouncing up and down in rhythm with the music, I swear, just as Bea Taylor did in that famous episode when she and the other church ladies got smashed on the Colonel's magic elixor. I started to imagine what it might be like to actually attend a pentecostal church service. Do they actually have a lot of shouting, screaming, and speaking in tongues? Do people really get healed by the holy spirit in front of the congregation, with passion and weeping and shouting for joy? Well, as they say, I guess there's only one way to find out for sure...