It's a Mystery

My wife and I went to terrific movie called "The Soloist".  It's a great and touching story of a extremely gifted musician troubled by mental illness, a film I highly recommend.

It brings to mind my admiration regarding those lucky people whe are able to play a musical instrument, any musical instrument at all.  The best music I can play is from my radio or iPod shuffle.

I played basketball in high school and then in college.  I kept playing for many year of my adult life.  I could fake right and go left, I could slow down and then speed up, I could fake a shot and drive around a defensive player.  But I couldn't go right and left at the same time.  I couldn't fake a shot and take a shot at the same time.  In other words I couldn't do two different things at the same time.

I play golf also.  I grip the club with 2 hands.  You supposed to swing back and through the ball in one great coordinated arc.  Hard to do but fun to try.  But all together.

On the other hand.....

Piano players play with both hands at the same time but each hand does something different. Organ players do the same thing with 4 or 5 rows of keys and also use their feet on the pedals at the same time.  Watching that cellist in the movie, one hand did one thing while the other hand did something different AT THE SAME TIME !  One hand at one speed, the other hand at another speed.  How do you move one hand slow while the other hand moves fast?

How does anyone do that?  I have no idea.  It's just like that other impossible feat I have never master, skating backwards.  That also seems impossible to me.

All the members of my family all play musical instruments, except me,  and are great at it. 

Like I say - I don't get it ......

It's a mystery to me.

Give Her a Big Hug

(click to enlarge view)

Isn't that a wonderful expression of love and remembrance! Wow!

I'm back. In Minnesota and on the blog. Big, big day tomorrow - Mother's Day.

A little sad though. My mom is not around anymore. She left us awhile back, leaving an empty hole in all our hearts. That empty feeling will never go away but she's not gone, certainly not forgotten. She lives on in our memories. I still think of her often.

Like all of us, I could say "I remember ......" and go on and on. I'm not going to do that but I do have my favorite photo, plus others to share with you.

First the photo. One of my oldest memories is when I was very little and also very short. My mom was only 5' 2" tall and I remember to just loving to wrap my arms around her and put my head against her tummy and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. That must have happened around Dahlen time, in the early 50's.

For some reason I stopped hugging. I realized that was silly and decided to go back to the old ways and begin my favorite hug again. This is what it looked like:

(click on the photo to see some photos)

Of course I couldn't squeeze quite so much but it was wonderful.

I have a request for the rest of you - if you can, give your mother a big hug, today, tomorrow, and every day you can, take a picture of it and post it on your refrigerator! Remind yourself of that wonderful person that would do anything for you, no questions asked. That's how I remember my mom and I'm sure its the same for you.