Strumming

It's been a long, long time since I have seated myself in front of the computer with the express intention of writing a blog post. Even now, I'm doing it only because my meeting, supposed to be going at 8:00 this morning, is still not going at 8:39.

I hate waiting. Why do they make me wait?

Rather than blogging, my creative outlet over the last several months has been music. Not just the listening to, as that is always a favorite pastime of my, but the making of. The making of is new. Well, not new, latent. Not latent, reborn. Yes, reborn.

And while one of my esteemed high school youth said it best when she said of the ukulele, "It's not that big a deal… it's like the recorder of stringed instruments…", I have been teaching myself to play. I've never played a stringed instrument before, unless you count my fifth grade foray into the cello. I assure you, you should not count my fifth grade foray into the cello. As soon as we started using that pesky bow, I was out. I loved plucking the thing, though.

Perhaps Mrs. Legree failed to notice my potential as a stand-up bassist. I could be hooked on drugs playing for tips in a jazz band today, if only she had nurtured me.

Oh, lost opportunity!

I think part of my desire to learn the ukulele is that it is simple. But really it's because of my cracked sense of humor and incessant self-deprication. There is something weird and creepy and funny about a big fat guy that looks like a biker, (the words of another of my blatantly honest high school students), playing a little stringed instrument.

Like a caricature, it is funny because it is obtuse. A little off. Just like me.

Of course, I don't play Hawaiian happy-go-lucky music on it either. The first song I learned was "Mother", by Pink Floyd; A treatise on an overbearing, overprotective mother who stifles her young boy into insanity.

Such serious pretense played on such a "happy" instrument. That, my friends is a funny juxtaposition.

Surprisingly, I have really taken to playing. I enjoy it immensely and play as often as possible. It is the only activity that can take me out of my day and put me into a place of relaxation. I will, given the chance, play for a couple hours in a sit.

I don't like playing in front of other people. I'm frequently frustrated by my inability to play and sing some more complex songs at the same time. It seems to be one or the other right now.

But I am getting better and I am still enjoying myself and I am glad that Emily bought me the instrument as a birthday present. Since I am on the mailing list for guitar center now, I see they have a sale on a mandolin. That would be fun. I figure the uke is a gateway drug to the guitar, at least. Or perhaps even the stand-up bass.

Now that's growth.