What Not to Say (Unless you are old and can get away with it)

This week's series is dedicated to all of us out there who sometimes forget their filter.....or simply don't care enough to use one.....like the other day when I was teaching the kids about humility and Lily said, "It can be hard to be humble can't it, Mom? (Yes) But you are good at being humble, aren't you?"

I laughed and told her, "Actually I have to work hard at it too Lily because it is really tough when you are so darn awesome!" (hee hee hee, I believe Aidan might have picked up the humor anyway.)


Story One:
Have I ever mentioned how much I love old(er) people? Well, I do. I especially love how they just throw the you-know-what to the wind and tell you what they think, no filters necessary.

So, last week I played two pieces for the special music and offering at our church: an arrangement of "Borning Cry" as well as "The Lord's Prayer." 

After the service, I beelined for the coffee (I don't drink anything caffeinated before I play in church as I see it as totally sinful.....Just kidding. Actually, it just makes me too shaky and who needs to shake when they are playing totally exposed violin solos? My vibrato doesn't need to sound like a hummingbird on cocaine!) 

Anyway, as I was standing there with Kurt and several kids hanging off me, this older gentleman comes up and the conversation went something along these lines:

"I really enjoyed your music today," he said.

"Oh, thank you," I responded.

"I've never seen anyone count the music with their feet like that before....." he went on.

"Well, um, you aren't supposed to tap your feet while you play, of course," I assured him, as I choked on my coffee.

He was almost snickering at this point. "Well you sure had that foot tapping thing down," he said enthusiastically, as if this were some hard fought for skill. "It was quite amusing. I've never seen that before. Tapping your toes to the beat. They were really going, weren't they?"

Hello? I get the point. It was distracting and something we musicians try hard NOT to do, but guess what? I DID IT! 

"Well sir, you see, we pulled out the music to that piece just yesterday and during rehearsal I was so focused on the notes I forgot to count at all so I figured it was better to keep time with my foot than to be completely off with the piano," I quickly explained. (I had originally thought I would just wing it on Borning Cry, improv here and there, it was an easy enough piece after all. But when I got to the rehearsal Saturday the pianist pulled out an arrangement meant for solo voice that modulates through three different keys and is full of filler, extra measures and other such loveliness. I found that I was having a hard time paying attention to the counting since I was having to pay attention to the actual notes, thus began the toe tapping.....bad excuse but it beat having to practice an extra few hours.)

"Ahhh, well, it wasn't bad, that toe tapping, just interesting to watch," he said.

"Hopefully it didn't take away from the music too much," I replied patiently.

"Oh no. I enjoyed it," he said. "But then, I am mostly tone deaf so it all sounds good to me."

Uh, thanks, I think.

Church can be very good for practicing ones humility.

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