When the news broke that Beyonce might have lip-synced the National Anthem at the Inaugural Ceremony, my first thought was, “Who cares?” Seriously, we are beginning to be the most entertained and least educated advanced culture in the world now.  When people are being killed by terrorists, Congress can’t agree on anything, and Korea is threatening to launch more missiles while China and Japan are chasing each other in war planes, we worry about lip syning?

When President Kennedy was killed and I had to stand in the middle of my high-school stadium and play Taps, I wish they had invented sound-track-trumpet lip-sync. The other time that I had that wishful feeling was standing …on the rooftop of a bank in Indiana, PA, on Veterans Day also playing Taps to a few thousand people watching from below. For any of you who are familiar with music and musicians, not unlike the wind blowing in the end zone at Heinz Field, we are sometimes impacted by weather conditions.

For example, what if Beyonce had been standing in freezing rain with heavy winds? The music from the Marine Band could have floated off into the distance, and she would have been completely out-of-sync with them. Or, what if the wind blew really hard and the music had flown off the Marine Band’s music stands? (We used clothes pins to hold the music in my day.) Because that was an arrangement that was written specifically for her, they could have really screwed things up. None of those things happened, however, and it wasn’t so cold that the band’s mouthpieces froze to their lips like the kid stuck to the flagpole in A Christmas Story. In fact, it was a beautiful, sunny, winter day, and the potential for nervousness was the only possible reason for the accusation by the Marine Band that Beyonce had lip-synced.

You know, she was afraid she’d pull a Christina Aguilera and flub the words, or a Roseanne Barr and destroy the song completely. (My Taps experiences turned out okay, but I was so afraid of screwing up that I nearly pulled an Al Roker on those two occasions.) Well, some of you may think that I’m a sissy, but by the end of her rendition of the National Anthem, I had tears in my eyes. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL, and her talent was so obviously overwhelming that, at least to me, lip-syncing would not have been a problem.

BUT then at about 6:14 p.m., I saw a post that the Marine Band was recanting their charge. Capt. Eric Flanagan, a spokesman for the United States Marine Corps reportedly said, “The band accompanying her was pre-recorded, but the Marine Band has no knowledge as to whether Beyoncé sang live.” Then he went on to say, “Regarding Ms. Knowles-Carter’s vocal performance, no one in the Marine Band is in a position to assess whether it was live or pre-recorded.” So, no one would ever be able to say definitively that she had used the lip-sync track. But here’s the REAL STORY: The Marine Band and Beyonce had not had a chance to practice together . . . EVER! Well, Holy COW, no wonder she would even consider lip-syncing! Not getting to practice together, even once, is a little like riding a bike for the first time ever, in New York City rush hour traffic.

The spokesperson who decided to out Beyonce is probably peeling potatoes or counting paper towels somewhere, and for what? It’s not like Lance Armstrong where Beyonce was taking voice enhancement drugs and lying.

Either way, her voice is amazing. So, here’s my final take on this situation: If Beyonce wants to come to the Consol Energy Center and sing, I’m there. She’s really talented and, I know this is not politically correct, but she is gorgeous, too. AND the Marine Band? What can anyone say about the Marine Band? They’ve played for every Inauguration since Thomas Jefferson became our third president. So, not unlike when I order decaffeinated latte’ with skimmed milk, I say, “WHY BOTHER?   Come on folks; let it alone.”

Just for clarification, this is not about Borders Bookstores.  This little blog is about the borders in our lives.  The theme is not original, but it is, in fact, potentially consequential to us all.  Borders are either what we embrace or consciously decide to cross.  Usually, when that crossing process begins, we are teenagers seeking our own relevancy, independence and joie de vivre.  Borders can be relevant demarcations that we, as a society, embrace; or not. For example, when you attempt to cross over the imaginary line between Canada and the United States, you’d better have a passport, and when you go from El Paso to Juarez, you’d better have a bazooka.    Just read this warning from the Juarez Wikipedia page:   WARNING: Be extremely careful in the city because of gang violence in Ciudad Juarez. Over 5000 people, including some foreigners, have been killed since the beginning of 2009. Most murders are related to the drug trade, but the city remains unsafe for anyone caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Criminal gangs that engage in extortion and kidnapping operate with near impunity. Now that’s a potentially significant border. We have borders all around us, and those borders can be very real or completely self-imposed.  In fact, many of the borders that mankind has spilled blood for over the centuries have either long been forgotten or were senseless in the first place.

I often talk about the view from space where, unless the borders are made by flowing rivers or distinctive mountains or oceans, they are not visible from outer space.  As societies we have agreed upon borders, but beyond that agreement, we sometimes embrace them in a completely irrational manner.  Border crossings really do help us move from childhood to adulthood on so many levels.  It seems that when we can decide that our toys are too juvenile, we can finally put them down and move on with our lives.  (That is until we can afford more expensive and complicated toys.)  When we trade Buzz Lightyear for an IPad, we know that we are crossing a new threshold, a new border.  The challenge that we all seem to face, though, is when to ignore borders that may have once served a purpose but no longer make sense.  Do you really want to go back to just passing notes once you’ve kissed?

Well, this Christmas, I witnessed five little kids who were securely wrapped in the magic and wonder of the season.  Yes, there were more questions than usual, but they eagerly dove into the protection of the carefully laid out borders set by their parents since birth.  “You must be in bed or Santa won’t come.”  “You can’t get up too early because your presents might disappear. “ Unfortunately for many of us, borders which begin as cobwebs, grow into ropes and eventually morph from chains to heavy wire cable.  Many times they prove to be very unhealthy for us as humans.  For example, if you have extremely high cholesterol and drink two gallons of cream per day, you may only have a 50/50 chance of needing to be concerned about crossing other borders.

Bottom line?  Growth comes from working half of the time in areas with which you are acquainted and comfortable and the other fifty percent  in areas where you have little or no comfort; crossing those borders will make you grow.

As we launch into another new year, I encourage all of you to be more introspective; to look at what’s holding you back, keeping you from growing, and most importantly what’s feeding your soul or not?  I’m also asking you to get out of the woulda, shoulda, coulda mind set and move on with your life.  You can never create a better past for yourself.

Come on, take a leap across some old, unneeded borders and have a very Happy New Year!