{"product_id":"book-2xbx","title":"Expanded Lives 35","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExpanded Lives 35 - The Choir\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter joining a local community choir, I worried about whether my own voice was strong enough.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI listened anxiously for mistakes and measured each rehearsal by how accurately I sang my individual part. Gradually, however, I began to hear the choir differently. A low harmony supported a melody that I could never hope to produce alone; another singer's breath helped me enter at exactly the right moment; dozens of distinct voices combine into something larger without losing their individuality.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring one rehearsal, the conductor asked everyone to stop trying to stand out and simply listen. The resulting chord had an emotional force I had never experienced while singing alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI came to understand that musical unity is not created by making everyone sound identical. It depends on difference held in relationship: separate voices, attentive to one another, producing something none could create independently.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis story explores musical unity as belonging through shared sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003eExpanded Lives \u003c\/strong\u003ecollection is emerging from another writing project:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e'The Xpanded Family at Light-Mann Farm'.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile developing the Light-Mann Farm series, I became increasingly interested in the possible consequences of Xpansion, the idea that we can extend human identity, experience and connection beyond their familiar boundaries. Eventually I found myself with a list of twenty benefits that such possibilities might bring, alongside twenty corresponding challenges.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThose forty ideas became the foundation for a collection of forty stories within the Light-Mann world, which I titled Xpanded Lives' …..but something unexpected happened while I was writing them. Again and again, I realised that the ideas themselves did not depend upon Xpansion at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe already live with them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSo I decided to take those same forty ideas out of the speculative world in which I had first explored them and look for them in ordinary life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe result is this series: Expanded Lives.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"INAudio","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":68440371298608,"sku":"BD2xbx","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/2xbx-Square-cover.webp?v=1794595409","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-2xbx","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}