There are some moments in life that may not be all “WOW” or “BAM” but they are still part of life and are still worthy of a picture or snapshot in the scrapbook (even if it is a digital scrapbook these days). It seems like there are more and more of these moments for me lately.
Saturday I got to experience one of those moments with my oldest son. He wanted to play in the annual Tuba Christmas concert they have every year downtown in the park. None of his friends were doing it, but yet he still wanted to do it; such confidence and willingness to try new things. I love that about him.
He practiced in the nearby church basement with 113 other tubas, sousaphones, baritones and euphoniums for nearly ninety minutes. The horns were decorated with lights and garland and everyone sat down with their hats, gloves and scarves ready to go. The temperature for the concert was to be 28°F with winds 10-15 miles per hour. I know. But, he wanted to have the experience and so, we sat and practiced and waited for 4:00 PM to roll around.
The walk to the park was only a few blocks, but definitely gave us a taste of what was to come. Cold.
We set up our lawn chairs right on the front row and watched the crowd begin to grow song by song. I estimated there were about three hundred people in the park standing and singing wonderful carols accompanied by the warm and rich sound of the Tuba band. It was an experience for him. One more thing he can say he did when he was 14.
By the end, we were chilled and the first moments of shivering were beginning to set in. We walked back to the church to gather our things (and to run his hands under cold water to try and bring back normal body temperature to his fingertips) and then headed to the car.
“That was fun.” For me, those three words were the highlight of the event. An entire Saturday dedicated to playing music and being part of something that no other 14 year-old did that day. Life. Experiences. Joy. That was fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment