Many years back, I was watching a television program which portrayed a dopey husband who couldn’t remember the details from his first encounter with his wife. Of course, I felt it was a good time to ask my husband if he remembered our first meeting. I was both smug and dismayed when he answered, “Yes, in the cafeteria of the school.” He was the Business Manager of the Navajo Mission where I was the school music teacher, and our work paths rarely crossed. I corrected him and reminded him about the party early in the school year at which we talked for a few minutes.
I was the one who felt chastised when he casually answered with, “No, that was a few weeks later. Cindy introduced you to me in the cafeteria after Mass that first week you came to the Mission. I remember. You talked and smiled a lot. I didn’t say much which is probably why you didn’t remember it. I just kept thinking, ‘What a pretty, pretty girl!’” No, all men aren’t idiots as the sitcoms would have you believe. Soon after, I decided that being right was much less important than having such a romantic mate.
The truth is, I really didn’t notice John much until I heard him play the drums. I didn’t expect much when his skills had been recommended by our common friend, Cindy. I’ve had self-professed drummers sit in on groups I’d directed before, and they were never as good as promised. He was. Suddenly, I looked at him a little differently. Talent is attractive.
But even more attractive, as I got to know John as a friend over the next year, was his incredible appreciation for music. John’s strength as a drummer is that he always sees himself as a part of the bigger picture, because he genuinely loves the music. Classical, jazz, world, medieval, blues, folk, liturgical, even a select few from the pop/rock world – all kinds of music and the best of each kind. His knowledge, passion, and genuine appreciation for the beauty of musical art was so powerful, you could see the love of God and His Truth in it. He also loved art, philosophy, the mystics, and nature, but his love and appreciation of music was central to his person.
There is something exciting about a man who appreciates the most beautiful things from our human world. I just finished reading Shadow of the Bear, Regina Doman’s first novel in her modern fairy-tale series. One of the things I loved about it was the admirable characters who find companionship in their shared love of great literature, poetry, the arts, and faith. It reminded me of my love for the characters in Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time series. In both adolescent series, the characters strive for beauty, truth, and excellent character in a world in which most people live according the dumbed-down status-quo. The important underlying lesson is that we aren’t here to simply live or be “happy”. We are part of something bigger. We have to choose a side and our side, God’s side, is that of beauty, truth, and virtue.
We all want our children to be well-cultured and well-rounded. What parent wouldn’t be proud of a child who loved great music, books, theater, poetry or art? The problem is, it isn’t enough to insist that our children explore and appreciate these things. We must be on a mission to grow and improve ourselves. We must reach beyond what is comfortable. One of the reasons I fell in love with John was that I learned more about music by being with him and I grew and learned to appreciate things I couldn’t understand before. Also, I believe he grew in other ways from knowing me.
One thing I know as an educator is that your children are subconsciously modeling your behavior. Read, listen, watch, and grow so your children will do the same. Go to the museum for you. Go to the theater, the ballet, the opera. John recently started a facebook page dedicated entirely to providing a basic knowledge of Music Appreciation for adults in just a few minutes a day: Music Appreciation 101. With today’s technology, it doesn’t take a lot of time and money to grow a little more, know a little more, and appreciate the beauty in our world a little more.
LINKS:
Music Appreciation 101: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Music-Appreciation-101/201627556538772
Shadow of the Bear: http://fairytalenovels.com/page.cfm/cat/19/Shadow-of-the-Bear/
A Wrinkle in Time: http://www.amazon.com/Wrinkle-Time-Madeleine-LEngle/dp/0440498058
