All children sing

Yesterday, in the changing rooms at the baths, a young girl of four or five, while waiting patiently for her mother, sat on a bench singing her heart out non-stop for a good fifteen minutes. No lyrics, just a sweet melody of some popular tune, she sang over and over, like a bird. The tiled walls amplified her voice such that the whole room chimed with the sweet melody, and any talking of the women in the the room gradually hushed then stopped. She was an Asian child, singing a Western melody.

Later in the day, walking my beach, as I do, whatever the weather, which on this occasion was grey and slightly drizzly, halfway along I met another young child singing, standing at the water's edge in his swimming trunks. Singing to himself but with good projection and volume, was this young boy, of similar age to the young girl, though of Maori and European mix. His bare brown chest, and dark wet hair, suggested he had been for a swim, but was now content to sing for the sea, as the drizzle set in and he found himself with some time on his hands to play with and get to know his freedom.

All children sing. What happens?