The way we all go

[Rick Lindstrom]

A brief, poignant story from the classifieds:

"I HAVE PAPER WORK ON THE GUITAR IN SAFTY DEPOSIT BOX.THIS IS A ONE OWNER GUITAR AND HAS BEEN PLAYED.NORMAL WARE STILL IN GOOD CONDITION
HAS BEEN PUT AWAY 4YEARS OWNER IN HEALTH CARE NURSEING HOME".

Time to reconnect with priorities.

[John Flynn]

Amen. I've created a list of who gets my instruments when I can no longer play them and can no longer make those decisions for whatever reason. It's an interesting, sobering exercise. It's helped me reconnect with priorities. It helps me realize how grateful I am for being able to play music at a decent level on nice instruments for as long as I can, which I know will not be forever. And I think gratitude is a great thing to contemplate, especially in this holiday season.

[lenf12]

"Time to reconnect with priorities" is certainly true for any time of year, not just the holidays. This particular ad in the classifieds however does not have any real info or pictures and is just so poorly written that it would not make me inquire any further. Sympathetic? Yes, for sure. Interested in buying this guitar? No, not so much.

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

[Rick Lindstrom]

"Time to reconnect with priorities" is certainly true for any time of year, not just the holidays. This particular ad in the classifieds however does not have any real info or pictures and is just so poorly written that it would not make me inquire any further. Sympathetic? Yes, for sure. Interested in buying this guitar? No, not so much.

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

The guitar has nothing at all to do with it. The point is that we all lay down our instruments for the last time one day, and should be mindful of it. Being human, we forget, or chose to ignore, our eventual personal extinction on earth. Things like this ad, bring it home.

For me anyway.

[Phil Goodson]

Yeah..... but don't be thinking about that. It'll just bring you down.

[Elliot Luber]

My family's one rule is not to fight over things. Instruments are great things, and they can hold a lot of meaning for people, but in the long run they are just things. We try to be fair about sharing our things when we're done with them, but sometimes we mess up, and it's okay. It's not done out of malice or greed. Usually hard feelings are because someone didn't know. That's why it's important to write things down. It even ads value as you establish provenance.

[JeffD]

So in the face of the inevitability of death, decay and dissolution there is a cure.

Play music with each other. As often as possible. Make loud raucous fun. Throw infinite moments of joy and hilarity into the face of Father Time who can only account for things in finite seconds and minutes.

Celebrate your life and music with others, its all we can do. Do it with all your heart.

[padawan]

So in the face of the inevitability of death, decay and dissolution there is a cure.

Play music with each other. As often as possible. Make loud raucous fun. Throw infinite moments of joy and hilarity into the face of Father Time who can only account for things in finite seconds and minutes.

Celebrate your life and music with others, its all we can do. Do it with all your heart.

That describes what I did last night (much more eloquently than ever I could). A handful of musicians sitting in a circle jamming until the wee hours of the morning. I was way outclassed but the other folks seemed to take joy in carrying me along. This will be one of those memories that sustains me when I reach a point when I can no longer play.

Sharing music is an activity that I highly recommend.

[bd_nashville]

Strange that this thread should appear right now. I just spent a week helping my parents be admitted to a nursing home. It was a tough week and having my mando with me helped me get through it. As I was helping them select some pictures and other mementos to bring with them, I suggested things that represented the many facets of their lives: for my Dad-golf, his military service, and his patriotism; and for my Mom-family, sewing, and painting. As you might imagine, in time my thoughts turned to my own future. I decided that when/if I come to this point, if I can still play the mandolin, I would want to bring it with me. If not...it goes to someone who will find as much joy and comfort in it as it brought me this week.

[Rick Lindstrom]

From the Don Henley song:

"So whatever your hands find to do
You must do with all your heart......."

[Timbofood]

I try to use the "Patek-Phillippe" concept applying it to instruments as well as jewelry or timepieces.
"We do not own these, we are merely caretakers for the next generation"
I understand BD, assisted living places, at best, are not home. Best wishes.

[Jim]

I have a will designating which of my instruments should go to which of my children, these are for a few of the instruments that are important to me. The rest I have charged my children in seeing that they go to musicians that will use and appreciate them. Heavy responsibility for my kids but I have faith they are up to it.

[allenhopkins]

My oversize accumulation of instruments will go this way: two sons will get whatever they want, the rest to dealers to go back into the world and let other musicians play them.

Nine days from now I turn 70. Can't kid myself about the proportion of my life that's before me, as compared to the years behind. There's a lot more "life" in these wonderful creations, than there is in me, at least if you measure "life" in years.

Hope I've been a good steward of them; they've certainly given me much pleasure. Now, time to go caroling in my neighborhood...

[Barry Canada]

I went to visit my mother in law in a nursing home who is unfortunately demented with Parkinson's. I was sitting at a lunch with her and several other demented souls. I took out my mando and played old standards which brought smiles to their faces whenever any of the woman recognized a tune. One lady sort of awakened from her lost gaze, looked happily at me and said isn't that the tune Mean to Me! I regularly play music for my 88 year old Mom. Consistently brings joy to her...hopefully my musical instruments will continue to bring joy to any player or listener when I am gone...all research consistently shows that music lives on in peoples minds longer than anything else...

[mdavis00]

The four mandolins I own were all inherited. Two are from distant relatives dead long before I was born, and the story surrounding the instruments is part of what little remains of those ancestors. They are precisely the sort of stories you would expect old mandolins to tell -- lovers' serenades and foreign wars.

The mandolin I am earnestly trying to learn to play was passed on by a member of my family battling cancer. I hope that he will be around to jam with me once I can keep up and to share the stories that will stick with the mandolin as I pass it on to my son or some other, enthusiastic young family member.

I can think of little better investment of leisure time than to create music to enrich the lives of family and friends, and to pass on that passion.

[JeffD]

I have always bristled at the idea of leisure time. I know, its a necessary word, but it seems to denote time that is less important, time to do what you don't need to do. Time to do what wasn't a priority.

We can't just make a living we have to make a life. Its real important.

[Bluetickhound]

I have always bristled at the idea of leisure time. I know, its a necessary word, but it seems to denote time that is less important, time to do what you don't need to do. Time to do what wasn't a priority.

We can't just make a living we have to make a life. Its real important.

post of the year, imo....

[Tom Cherubini]

The Italians have an expression: "Dolce far niente". "Dole-chay far nee-entay". It roughly translates as,
"The sweetness of doing nothing". In my estimation, very necessary in our lives from time to time.

TDC/

[Ted Eschliman]

The Wife and I did our wills recently. Because my child isn't knowledgeable about the value of my instruments or even how to go about liquidating them, I had the name of a close friend written in the will to assist in their sale. Prudent measure to minimize the awkwardness for the grieving.

[Petrus]

Maybe I'll have all my instruments thrown on my funeral pyre with me.

[GRW3]

Got to get the wills done. Told my one clear headed son to grab the instruments if anything happens to me. Even if the will is in place. Too much can happen...

[verbs4us]

Double amen, my brother. Years ago, I commissioned a great gutiar from a great luthier. I had my daughter (then age six) fill out the warrany card, since it would eventually be her guitar and wanted her to benefit from the lifetime warranty and from a sense of carrying on music. When my dad died, I inhertied his 1914 H2 mandola and I think the instrument is also thankful to be played. It is just wonderously ready to go anywhere, completely open and full of the spirits of past players who once sat around a room to make joyful noise. Everytime I pick it up, I feel the obligation of doing them justice.

[Timmando]

I've read that the sign of genius is to know that what is true for one being, is true for all beings. We all die eventually. For some the remaining journey is to enjoy what is left of our lives, as we look forward to the moment we can be reunited with our loved ones in some form or other, to meet our Maker, and to finally find out what this world is all about. Its not hard to enjoy life and music as we know it now, but still look forward to the end of it. I'm not afraid of death...I'm afraid of pain as it approaches!

[TheBlindBard]

So many beautiful posts here. Often times I have thought about this, if I were to die younger, or even if I get older and have a family and kids. I know that I would want to share music with my kids and family and teach them the knowledge I have gotten over the years. I am working on teaching my girlfriend a little piano (mostly just the notes, I don't know anything about piano technique, she's watching videos for that). But, music is a truly beautiful thing. If I could bring my mandolin with me everywhere I go for a bit of fun, that'd be great. Happy playing, everybody

[lukmanohnz]

My oversize accumulation of instruments will go this way: two sons will get whatever they want, the rest to dealers to go back into the world and let other musicians play them.

Nine days from now I turn 70. Can't kid myself about the proportion of my life that's before me, as compared to the years behind. There's a lot more "life" in these wonderful creations, than there is in me, at least if you measure "life" in years.

Hope I've been a good steward of them; they've certainly given me much pleasure. Now, time to go caroling in my neighborhood...

Lovely sentiments, Alan. My instruments will all be left to my children, and I hope they will pass them on to theirs.