Saturday, September 30, 2006

Love Song. Letting an Old Love Go.

It was Fall 1972. I took my second stab at college with a new major: Music. The local campus offered a course for students who were not interested in the classical study of music and wanted to find practical work in the business.

During those few years I fell passionately in love. The object of my love was unlike any love before because this object responded to my heart and soul. When my late husband would leave for work, I’d slip away with my new love and discovered a new element of my psyche.

Over the years my love met and accommodated my daughters, watched my new husband, Clif, followed me from California to New Mexico, and patiently waited for the touch of my fingers.

Change urged me to let this love go. Tears rolled down my cheeks when I gave it my final play then watched it roll into a mover's van for something more sophisticated.

Ah, don’t get your heart aflutter. I wasn’t having an illicit affair. In truth, no affair could compare to the passion I found on that rent-to-buy Story & Clark upright piano. And it was my thought that it would stay in the family, until... Recently, Clif wanted to give me something special for our twenty years of commitment. “Now, I’m not trying to say that you’re piano is not so hot,” Clif gingerly began, “but I know that you’ve been talking about the repair work it needs. I think I can swing a good deal on a baby grand.”

Viewing my music room, I envisioned how magestic a glossy black b-grand would look AND sound. But to let go of a love that has been with me for 34 years--I had to think about it. A visit to the piano shop clarified my thinking. The sound. The action. The response. All beyond my dreams. Yes, and when can you deliver, I asked.

My old love is getting refurbished now. I suspect that it will soon find a home with a music student and help that musician discover all the secrets that dwell within the song.

No comments: