March 2010
My dad gave up playing the steel guitar over three years ago. He was one of the best, and could make that guitar sound like an extension of his soul. He got the steel guitar case out three months ago and set it down in the study. Mom walked by, saw him, and thought, “Thank goodness, he’s going to play again!” Twenty minutes later she walked by the room and my dad was sitting on the floor with the pieces of his guitar scattered around him like Lincoln Logs. He was trying to figure how the pieces of the guitar fit together. Were did the legs go? What about this long metal rod? Mom stood there and watched him struggle for a second and then she walked away, almost in tears. A few minutes later he came out of the study. Mom asked him if he wasn’t going to play. He told her he had changed his mind. Once upon a time, my dad could put that steel together in less than 5 minutes blindfolded. Now he has no idea how to even join the two most obvious pieces of it together.
No comments:
Post a Comment