From the sublime to the anticipatory

I went to the wonderful Christmas concert of the Memphis Symphony and Chorus the other day, and this evening I went to watch the Christmas Concert at the Middle School in Camas Washington where my granddaughter plays in the sixth grade band.  Some might have seen the contrast as unpleasant, but, having spent my entire life as teacher in the arts, I found the sincere struggles of beginning artists wonderfully enriching.   Most of the tunes were truncated, only a few bars of each tune, but the Good King Wenceslaus was played three times and transposed each time which is always a challenge for beginners.  I congratulate the sixth grade band.   Each of the grades showed improvement though my interest was mostly in the band in which my granddaughter played.  Tomorrow we go to the high school band concert in which one of my grandsons plays both the trumpet and the baritone horn, and this will be interesting as well.  We always enjoy our trips to Washington to visit the children and grandchildren.  My son and his family are civil war re-enactors and they have a civil war Christmas party Saturday which we will attend but hopefully not re-enact.  Getting away from home at this time was very important for us and the time in both Mississippi, Tennessee and now in Washington has been very healing.  The flight in from Memphis was a physical strain for Janet, but was reasonably care free thanks to some folks in Dallas who got us from one plane to another within the hour allotted, but it was one time I was a little grateful that we both fall into the handicapped category because if we had tried to make our connections afoot and healthy I fear that we might still be in Dallas. 

On the other hand, when I tried to connect her laptop this morning  bent over to plug in the power supply and just continued to bend till I hit the floor with a bang and took her computer with me to the floor, and I fear that I caused terminal damage to the computer.  Of course everyone in the family was more concerned about my fate than the computers.  I came up without even a bruise, just a red face from embarrassment.  “Handicapped” has results less sanguine than making your airline connection on time.

At any rate from the Memphis Symphony  to the Sky ridge Middle School band to the Camas High School band to the Civil War Christmas Party my soul is richer for the trip.