Dr. JJ Sings the Freedom Focused Corporate Anthem

Joseph F. Smith
(1899-1964)
Professor of Speech & Drama
Prolific Actor, Director, and Oral Reader
& my maternal grandfather

In today's post, I'm gonna go out on a limb a little.

I'm gonna share a video of me singing the Freedom Focused CORPORATE ANTHEM.

In light of the fact that I am not a professional soloist, what in the world gives me the audacity and presumption to do such a thing? 

I'm glad you asked!

There is a back story worth sharing, and it hearkens back to my formal education. I have two accredited academic degrees. One is a bachelors in English. The other is a doctorate in education. Considering I have dedicated my career to writing, speaking, and teaching, it makes sense that I would have pursued an education in English and education.  

However, back in the year 2001, when I was just a lad perched at the outset of my college career, I thought for a time that I might pursue a degree in DRAMA and/or THEATER.

Why?

          Good Question!

My maternal grandfather (center) plays Prince Sirki (aka "Death")
in La Morte de Vacanza (Death Takes a Holiday) by Alberto Casella
Adapted by Robert Ferris in 1929 for English on Broadway.

Throughout my life, I have been blessed with the opportunity to attend an extensive and eclectic array of live, professional theatrical productions. I've also had the chance to perform in (or otherwise support) a number of live, amateur, theatrical roles over the years.

And I enjoyed all of it!

My interests and talents in this arena were both genetically and mimetically influenced.

First and foremost, there was a definite genetic influence. My mother had been involved in theater as a young woman in high school and college, and her father (my grandfather)—a professor of speech and drama back in the 1920s-1960s—had directed 150 stage plays in his career; he had also performed in many of them as an actor.

And he was good at it.

My Grandfather, Joseph F. Smith (1899-1964)
in a play costume for the role of "Death"
in "Death Takes a Holiday."

So good, in fact, that his peers were not shy in heaping lavish praise upon his impressive and wide range of theatrical talents. 

For example, one of his academic colleagues heralded him as: "one of the half-dozen top-flight [oral interpretive] readers in all of America."  And he didn't stop there, but continued, saying: "A few may equal him, but none surpass him. In the highest and finest sense of the term, he is an artist" (1).

Some of the drama and theatrical opportunities I enjoyed growing up were church-, school-, or community-related. For example, I sang in a bunch of different church choirs throughout my teen, young adult, and adult years. I also played in my high school's concert band for three years—rising to the rank of percussion section leader my third year. And then there was the odd production at my local church, school, or community that would arise, drawing me into the performance arts even further.  

Other opportunities arose as simply a creative outgrowth of my native personality, which has always possessed a bit of a flair for the dramatic. This was apparently what led my high school basketball team to nickname me "The Jensen Show" when I was in 9th grade. Or perhaps it is why an academic colleague in my doctoral program once suggested (to my surprise) that I might just have the stuff required to be a successful stand-up comic.

Thus it was that spontaneous silliness, monologuing, cracking funnies in casual conversations, creatively contorting my face and body, enthusiastic (not-to-be-confused with skilled) dancing, and/or efforts to impersonate my favorite actor, Jerry Lewis (or somebody else either real or created), were not uncommon actions on my part as a teenager and young adult.  

More notably, in fifth grade I was cast in a leading role in an original school play production that my fellow fifth-graders had collectively written with the help of a local professional writer named Wendy White-Ring.

An ad promoting an original play
I wrote and co-directed in 1998. 

Later, I had opportunities to be an extra in a couple of small-budget films in my home state of Utah. Then, after graduating from high school and before I served my church mission, I wrote and co-directed an original play for fifth and sixth graders at the local elementary school in my hometown.

I entitled the play: Chivalry Isn't Dead.

This undertaking was, you might say, an early effort at promoting Self-Action Leadership (SAL)—albeit with a fictional historic and romantic twist that was age appropriate for preteens.   

When I enrolled in college after my mission, I signed up for six (6) different thespian-related courses in support of my evolving and ultimately ambivalent theatrical ambitions. These courses included: 

• DRAMA
• THEATER
• VOICE and DICTION
• MOVEMENT for ACTORS
• PUBLIC SPEAKING
• VOCAL PERFORMANCE (musical soloing) 

To play Hamlet, or to hone my writing skills
like the author thereof: that was a key
question in my mind during my college years.

At the conclusion of this Tour de Performance Art dans le Université, I ultimately decided against pursuing a degree in drama or theater and signed up to major in English instead. This was a solid long-term career-based decision because of the immense practical benefits to my writing, organizing, and critical thinking (analytical) abilities. Such skills would prove indispensable to developing the SAL Theory and Model, organizing and composing the SAL Textbooks, and otherwise building Freedom Focused from the ground up.   

Nevertheless, the formal training I received in theater, drama, and music greatly enriched my overall education, career, and life. And it often comes in handy in my pedagogical stage roles of public speaker and teacher. It also further engaged my interest in culture, history, art, and CULTURAL LITERACY, which, as you may remember, was the subject of last week's post.

In addition to enrolling in those six performance-related courses in college, I also played several small parts in my college's production of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Among the various roles I played was a speaking part: Curtis the Cook (Petruchio's servant) who has a comical tête-à-tête with Grumio in Act four, Scene one. Participating in that production was a marvelous experience and proved to be one of the highlights of my entire undergraduate education. In the famous words of Mark Twain: "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

Mark Twain
1835-1910

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

—Mark Twain

Now that you are familiar with my background in music and theatre, you will perhaps be less surprised that I am going to SING FOR YOU today. 

As you may remember, a few weeks ago I introduced the official Freedom Focused Corporate ANTHEM. All great nations and organizations have some kind of representative patriotic song; so why shouldn't Freedom Focused?  

Joseph Martin Kraus
aka: the "Swedish Mozart"

The music to our Corporate Anthem was composed by Joseph Martin Kraus, who is sometimes referred to as the "Swedish Mozart." This nickname was derived from his musical talents and the fact that his life paralleled Mozart's almost precisely from a chronological standpoint (both were born in 1756 and died in their mid-30s in the early 1790s).

The lyrics to our corporate ANTHEM were written by Dr. JJ.

Click HERE to review the Lyrics to the Freedom Focused Corporate Anthem.  

After publishing the words to our anthem a few blog posts back, a friend of mine and an avid reader of the FF Blog emailed me and, I assume somewhat jokingly, mentioned that I had failed to include a video of me singing the anthem. 

My friend was right!

Never one to back down from a worthy challenge—or otherwise cower from putting myself out there or going out on a limb in the name of wise and calculated risk-taking (or the education and entertainment of others)—and considering I've been in many choirs and even performed a few public solos in my day, I couldn't come up with a good reason for not adding such a video.

Dr. JJ sings the FF Corporate ANTHEM

So... for my good friend, ANDY, and the rest of my readers, I am including this week what I omitted from my previous post.

Before I do so, I really should issue an aural caveat for the sake of your ears...

I harbor no illusions about my singing voice. I am NOT a great vocal soloist.

I am okay—a decent—vocalist who, on his best days, rises to the range of the "high-side of average." In other words, I recognize that I sound better in a choir than I do in a solo performance.

For example, remember that dynamite comedy duo from the 1950s—Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis? Dean Martin was a truly great crooner. Jerry Lewis's voice was okay, but there's a reason he sang a lot less on screen than Dean. 

Spoiler alert...  I am a lot more like Jerry Lewis than Dean Martin... in more ways than one!

Nevertheless, just as Jerry would, on occasion, break forth into song in one of he and Dean's films, I am going to pull a little something out of my top hat for you today. I am going to sing the Freedom Focused Corporate ANTHEM for YOU!  

Click HERE to watch Dr. JJ SING THE ANTHEM  

FREEDOM  FOCUSED  CORPORATE  ANTHEM

Verse 1

I'm Freedom Focused,
I love liberty!
I'm free from tyrants, terror,
Pride and jealousy!

I'm free from myself and the devil within:

A fiend far more fearsome

Than the author of sin!

Verse 2

Freedom in all

Of it's glorious

Pure, sweet, majestic, and

Liberating bliss—

Will be mine forever as I recall this:

I'm sovereign and serendipity

Takes care of all the rest!

Verse 3

I'll never give up;

I'll fight to the end;

I'll finish my mission,

Then be born again!

And all along my way I'll lift others high,

Empowering them to soar into the sky!

Verse 4

There's no greater cause

Than FREEDOM and GROWTH!

To live for this purpose

Is my solemn oath!

I'll ever prepare myself and e'er be one

Who honors and reflects the pure light of the Sun!  

Click HERE to watch Dr. JJ SING THE ANTHEM himself.  

—Dr. JJ

July 20, 2022

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 275th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 104th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.  

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 274 FF Blog Articles.  

.........................

Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.  

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Notes:  

1. According to Andrew T. Weaver, former Head of the Speech Department at the University of Wisconsin, "Joseph F. Smith ... [is] one of the outstanding leaders of our profession. He is an inspiring lecturer and a powerful interpreter of literature."  W. Norwood Brigance, former Head of Speech at Wabash College wrote the following of Smith: "Joseph F. Smith is one of the half dozen top-flight readers in all of America. A few may equal him, but none surpass him. In the highest and finest sense of the term, he is an artist."