Range

    Since about age 12, I've been a bass-baritone. In recent years, though, I've had intermittent periods where I can hit high notes. At first, I thought this could be called singing tenor, but now I think it's just being a bass-baritone with range. I note that it always happens when I'm in a better mood. This reminds me that when one is not in a good mood, it's called being low. And you do notice that people in bad moods tend to speak in a lower than usual voice.
    It seems like this would be a useful diagnostic. I think it would have been helpful if someone besides me had noticed when I was a child that I had a strong tendency towards depression, and moreover that it often expressed itself in talking with a very low voice for a kid. Could all schoolkids be required to take chorus classes? Could the classes be taught by music teachers also trained in psychology?
    Mind you, I went to school 30+ years ago, before the advent of Ritalin. It's no part of my purpose to suggest that children should be more medicated. I guess I'm talking about a world that never existed, one where guidance counselors actually offered guidance or counseling. (In my day they offered study halls, more or less.) The only pill I think we should all be taking is the one I take nearly every day, iodine from kelp. I started about the time all this singing tenor started, too. What a coincidence!
    Maybe some day school nurses will hand out kelp tablets instead of Ritalin. It's a thought.