Legacies

If you've been reading my Facebook status updates at all, you'll know that Noah has taken a very sudden and surprising interest in learning to play the guitar.  The electric guitar, specifically.  Our house has always been filled with music and music runs in the family on all sides.  All the men in Matt's family play at least one instrument and are quite good at it, and in my family, all my siblings and I have played at least one (in most cases more than one) instrument and love to sing.  Our house is filled with instruments, too-- four guitars, an ukulele, a keyboard, a trumpet, and a number of harmonicas.  Surrounded by all this music, and Noah has never once showed a genuine, self-originating interest in playing any of it until now.  Until this past Thursday at the Kaimuki Christmas Parade.

I was just trying to explain to Charlie that it doesn't matter to me whether this evolves into something bigger.  I don't care if he never starts a band or even loses interest in a couple weeks.  What utterly floors me is the genesis of an idea.  Who can explain how Noah found inspiration at the parade?  I've asked him several times, and he has no good answer.  All he can say is that during the parade, he thought about really trying to learn to play his keyboard, but then changed his mind and decided he wanted to learn the electric guitar.  He hasn't said what it was specifically that happened at the parade that made him think about this, and I can't begin to guess, either.   As I've mentioned, plenty of music!  My family frequently has these kanikapila sessions at camps and various other get togethers, charlie and I sing and play together all the time!

My kids' interest in playing guitar plays a bigger role than they can even comprehend right now.  I hope that they continue to learn and grow in music so that they might be able to bridge any gap that may exist between them and Matt's family.  It is their legacy, after all.  Big Durel taught guitar lessons to kids, and his kids picked up the musical torch.  Have you heard of Suplecs?  That's little D's band (they have cds out!  You can also check out their Facebook page if you wanted).  It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't had similar experiences, but it really warms my heart to think that my kids have something in common with the other side of their family that they haven't seen in 6 years.  They have something in common with their dad... whom they haven't seen in 6 years.

It also, of course, touches my black little heart that my kids want to play guitar.  After all, didn't I always fall for the guy who could play the Doors or the Black Crowes on a 6 string?  Didn't I aspire to be one of the few chick musicians when I grew up?  This totally rocks!  Noah has just been picking up a guitar and practicing!  PRACTICING!  Without being told!  You don't know what kind of breakthrough this is for my lazy (it's the truth) son.  I've been waiting so long for him to show genuine interest in ANYthing, and he's doing it.  Other recent interests?  He says he wants to join the cross-country team next year so that he can prepare for high school athletics.  He now CHOOSES to join band again next year.  He chooses to read a book instead of watch tv!

So I write these things down, not to impress my miniscule audience, but so that I can look back and remember the awesomeness of the genesis of this, my son's musical interest.  So that I'll remember that he couldn't wait for Charlie to come home so that he could not only show him how much he's been practicing Crazy Train, but so that Charlie can teach him MORE.  Charlie literally jumps to accommodate Noah's teaching requests because he says he'll take any opportunity to be the hero for the boy, especially when he's nearing the age where he may not want our company at all.  Every day I get teary-eyed when Noah picks up that guitar and practices the opening to that song (the song I've never liked, incidentally, and now hear almost every moment my kids are awake).

And I have the Kaimuki Christmas Parade, held on Thursday, December 1st, 2012, to thank for it.  The very same parade, I might add, that gave Lucy occasion to walk in her first parade and show off her poi ball skills.  The parade where I got to hang with Ami and Maya after such a long time, and where I got to see some old friends I'd not seen in years.  I have much to thank the Kaimuki Christmas Parade for, if only I could wrap my mind around the mind-blowingness of it all.