I’m what Jack Miles would call a pious agnostic. I was raised, and I raised my sons in the Unitarian Universalist tradition. No harm in behaving as though someone were watching even if I’m unsure if someone is. I make an effort to follow the Golden Rule, if for no other reason than to sleep at night.

Sleep wasn’t too great this week. Not only did I have an ailing loved one, but so did the person I was trying to interview.

That’s why when singer Barbara Walker asked if she could pray with me right then and there over the phone, I didn’t quibble. Perhaps there was someone listening. During that prayer she said what we were each experiencing put “more love and compassion in our hearts.”

I’m always open to more love and compassion in my heart. And music in my ears.

Even the most agnostic amongst the pious feels uplifted upon hearing gospel music. It’s in our collective soul, our American DNA. It reminds us of where we’ve been and where we should be. All the more reason we should enjoy Sunday Afternoon Music at the Michener: A Celebration of Gospel Music tomorrow, April 14 from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Walker (She’s toured with with the greats, including Patty LaBelle, Gladys Knight and Maynard Ferguson, in addition to teaching children about the letters “D”, “B” and “M” on Sesame Street.) will perform with Esther Dinkins and the Back Bench Boys, the male choir from the Second Baptist Church of Doylestown where Dinkins is choir director and Walker is a member.

Walker has performed at Michener twice before, singing jazz and R&B, but both times she was sick with the flu. “This is the first time I’ll be full voice, so I’m excited about that.”

The performance will feature, as Walker says, “good, up-lifting spiritual songs,” full of love and energy. She is on to something.

In Robert Gupta’s TED Talk, the LA Philharmonic violinist speaks about his music lesson with Nathaniel Ayers, the talented and tortured Julliard-trained musician, when Gupta discovered how music provided an escape for Ayers from his tormented state.

“Music is medicine,” Gupta says. “Music changes us.” It makes us feel good, and “we’re able to shape those emotions into reality.”

My loved one is home from the hospital, feeling better. That’s why I’m writing this post while listening to Alison Krauss sing “Down to the River to Pray,” which this skeptic will sing with her choir tomorrow morning at services.