The national anthem doesn’t have to divide us. It can unite us

I’m a singer living in Nashville, Tennessee — Music City, USA. But at age 64, you won’t find me singing at the honky-tonks. You’re much more likely to hear me singing in my church choir or perhaps a ballpark.

That’s because I’ve sung the national anthem in public for 20 years. I even accomplished one of my lifelong dreams: to sing for my beloved Chicago Cubs and nearly 40,000 fans at a packed Wrigley Field.

That single performance turned into multiyear, cross-country quest to sing the anthem at all the ballparks in the Chicago Cubs organization, which I completed in 2018.

Most of my performances were good; a few were really good. But the performances that taught me the most were the ones in which something went wrong.

In Jackson, Tennessee, for example, I was halfway through the song when my mind went blank. I could not think of the next phrase. “Just keep singing,” I told myself, and the words flowed out correctly.