PEA RIDGE — A cool (but also sometimes gut-checking) part of this job is the places you get to go and things you get to see up close.

From a photography perspective - and at the risk of sounding terribly inhumane - car wrecks are sometimes exciting, in their mangled metal glory, broken glass and high-flying emotions.

Certain crime scenes are cool (though some I don’t ever want to witness again).

Fires are good if you can get there when the flames are still roaring.

But sometimes the things that move you the most are surprising.

Last week, I went to Pea Ridge Intermediate School to take pictures of the dress rehearsal of the third- and fourth-grade musical “Joust.”

I’m sure I have been seen with my camera at these kinds of things:crawling around on the floor, scooting out of spectators’ views and trying to get up close enough to capture the dimples on the kids’ cheeks when they smile.

I arrived when the show had already started and snuck in to hear the booming voices of little ones through a microphone.

I’m sure they had spent days practicing their lines and learning the songs.

They took turns with the microphone in their paper costumes, and were serious - what they were about to say over the loud speaker was the most important thing they have ever said.

The boys’ energy was inspiring, the way they moved so quick from place to place, sword in a stone to center mic and back.

The girls’ sassy attitudes were fantastic, the way they stood handson-hips or waved their fingers in the air, saying they wouldn’t put up with such-and-such.

Then they sang.

I had to put the camera down and sit there on the floor and just listen and watch their faces and their little pointy paper hats sway back and forth together.

Those kids didn’t care if they were out of tune or too loud or too quiet - they just sang. They didn’t look at anything in particular, didn’t get embarrassed if they forgot the words for a minute. It didn’t matter what they did earlier that day or what they might do later,right then they were just singing - loud.

I wanted to stay there all day.

I suppose some freedom comes with belting out a song as loud as you can, some strange peace or maybe release. This performance by elementary students can teach us all a lesson. They live stress-free, don’t have to work or feed a family, hopefully don’t (ever) have to face some really hard things life throws our way.

They don’t know any better than to just let go, to just sing for the sake of singing.

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Editor’s note: Cassi Lapp is the former news clerk/staff writer of The Times of Northeast Benton County. A Colorado native, Lapp graduated from the University of Arkansas. She can be reached at [email protected].

Opinion, Pages 2 on 05/11/2011