Change

Have you ever thought about change?
Well, I´m sure everyone has, at some point in life.
I´m not especially concerned about getting older myself, especially because I have always seemed older than I actually was (not so much in looks, but in behaviour and interests, that is). So you might say, my physical age is just catching up with my real one.

But what has touched me in that respect was my discovery of Libera in late 2011. The videos I came across were a few years old by the time I first saw them (most were from the 2007 Leiden concert). At first I didn´t know this and just enjoyed the music. But after only a short time, as I considered attending a concert somewhen in the future, I realized that I wouldn´t be able to see/hear any of the boys I saw in the videos on stage, at least not in lead roles. And all this despite the fact that the footage was taken only 4 years ago.

4 years to me is no timespan to speak of. Of course that´s different for kids and teens, but for most kids, getting older means an improvement in abilities. For these kids it means losing their ability to sing in this very special way.  I can only imagine how it would feel to practice for years, getting better, singing solos for a few years at most and then see your ability diminishing.

I  hope they all find a way to cope with that and find satisfaction in other roles like teacher for the younger ones or playing instruments. From the outside though, it looks tragic, for every one of them knows in advance that this will eventually happen and they can´t do anything about it.

It would be interesting to learn if this outside view comes anywhere near the subjective ones of the boys themselves. As a fan one can easily wish to stop them from getting older just to keep their ability. But if you would be granted that wish, would it be fair to the boys?  They would retain one truely unique ability, but what about everything else they would miss out on? Would they want it for themselves? In the end I can´t imagine that, at least not for many. Especially kids normally can´t await to grow up.

So in the end, we all not only have to accept the inevitable but also recognize that this inevitable is most probably the better alternative, if there was one. We can only hope that the boys get all the support they need, if and when they need it, to get over it.