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LoveUbecause … you shared your music!
LoveUbecause … you shared your music!
Not wanting to be cliché, but there’s nothing like walking in another man’s shoes to get the full appreciation of an extraordinary situation and create empathy from what may have been felt as sympathy, or perhaps even indifference in the past.
I am a musician - going on 40 years now - jazz, classical, country, folk – and I have to tell you, I have been fortunate to perform in dozens, if not hundreds of “concerts” over the years. I put “concerts” in quotations because to me, though I have been blessed through serendipity, if not arguably ability, to perform in a few world class concert halls, a “concert” can take place just about anywhere there is a listener to appreciate your performance. Whether it be strumming a guitar around a camp fire, playing Christmas carols with a brass quintet in a nursing home, or conducting a Beethoven piano concert in a church where the beauty of the stained glass is only surpassed by the beauty of string players who play in tune and French horns producing notes soaring, seemingly, to the heavens above, the “concert” is by nature as much about the listener as it is about the performer - though as a performer I have sometimes actually, perhaps selfishly, forgotten that.
You see, I tend to be a bad spectator. Though having admittedly witnessed some spellbinding performances over the years, I yearn to be on the stage as opposed to sitting in the front row. I much prefer to be the artist in the gallery, as opposed to the visitor to the exhibition. Though perhaps detrimental to my well being, my preference is to be the player on the ice or field, even though that might have involved getting my nose ground into the dirt, or being bounced unceremoniously off the boards, while in younger years, playing rugby or hockey, because for the most part, I unfortunately don’t “do” sports as well as I would like - though not for a lack of trying!
So that gets me to the point – my epiphany for the day, I guess you may say. Christmas this year has not been as expected. Unfortunately my son has not been well and I spent much of the past twelve days at his side in hospital. In one sense, I tried to forget Christmas. “It can be any day,” I said to my wife, “we can wait till February, or March, as far as I am concerned. My first priority and only concern is that “M” gets better,” I insisted.
It is not that I don’t like Christmas, appreciate the spirit or couldn’t care. It was more that my first reaction as a parent was the want to see my child well and focus all my positive energy on that. But then it occurred to me just how “dumb” that was. How can you, however well intentioned, expect another to lay in bed over Christmas “just getting better”? Wouldn’t the lack of Christmas cheer make the road to recovery just a little bit longer? “Doh!”
So, on Christmas Eve I purchased a collection of Christmas decorations from a local shop and back I went to the hospital to see my son. Though well beyond still believing that Santa, St. Nick, Father Christmas, or whatever you want to call the old fella is a reality in anything but our imaginations, – you see “M” is 20 – from his smile I may as well have been the jolly old guy himself. Ok the Christmas tree was only cardboard, but taped to the wall, standing almost five feet tall, augmented with a large assortment of colourful Santa, reindeer and little Christmas tree cut outs, a velvet stocking and a string of gold metallic snowflakes pinned to the curtain that separated him from the three other patients in his room, there was indeed an air of festivity created.
But it was the distant sound of voices singing Christmas carols that really made the day and became a most welcome accompaniment to a visit from “M”’s Granny and Grandpa and a festive prelude to the visits from his gift laden aunt, uncle and cousin that followed later in the evening. Eventually the faint melodies became a full chorus of 20 or so voices gathered in the hallway outside “M”’s room. There were smiling faces, some of the carollers waved, as smiling, they stood by the doorway. But most of all it was the music that really touched me and “M”. To be the recipients of this Christmas gift of music, - strangers in need - so generously voiced by so many people, who gave up so much of their Christmas Eve, when they could have just as easily been home with their families, was something I will never forget. It made for an enchanted, truly special evening in a sterile hospital environment, forgotten, however momentarily with Christmas decorations and music. But perhaps just as importantly, it gave me a much better appreciation and renewed good feeling about concerts I have participated in over the years. It never really struck me just how important my music might have been to others and how it might have touched them for a variety of reasons. Not that I haven’t received their compliments graciously, but it is all too easy to lose the appreciation yourself for what you do – let the gift you have been given become mundane, at least in your own mind - and perhaps selfishly think more about your own performance instead of your audience. Not that the two are unrelated, but really, which is more important?
So, LoveUbecause … you shared your music and made me aware of what that really means at a time when another human being is feeling low. And, perhaps just as importantly, inspiring me to get out again and give back what you offered, with a better understanding of what that can mean to another!
With love and a better understanding of the world around me,
“A” the “O” in L
VE!
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Tags: Christmas, holiday, life, lifestyles, love, Music, philosophy, seasonal, sharing