For twenty-five dollars my mother bought a beautiful baby grand piano in 1955, and my siblings and I took piano lessons. I don’t remember when my brother and sister stopped their lessons, but I kept at it for quite a few years.
My own three children took lessons on that same piano. But they eventually lost interest, just as I did.
Curiously, though, I managed to keep two songs in my fingers for many years: Edward McDowell’s “Scotch Poem” and Arthur Brown’s “Improvisation and Melody.” What was I holding onto?
Then, out of sheer neglect by not oiling the wood at all, the baby grand quite literally fell apart when I tried to move it to another location.
Maybe that was my Higher Power’s way of telling me to let go of those two songs.
And a lot of other things.