Thursday, March 1, 2012

teachers, music and death by Diana Markley Guidas


one IF you have had at least one great teacher in your life, and you can find a phone number, let that person know that they had an impact on your life.  I had a math teacher in high school named Mr. Wilbur. He taught me pre-calculus and calculus, and he had an incredible gift for making math understandable.  Twenty years after I graduated, I was at my parents’ house for Christmas, and I called Mr. Wilbur.  He had long since retired, and I am quite sure he did NOT remember me, but it didn’t matter.  I just told him that he was the best teacher I ever had, and I wanted him to know that.  I have never regretted making that phone call. 

two When someone invites you to a concert ~ GO.  I don’t care what genre of music is being played.  I used to think that I only wanted to attend performances by groups that I was familiar with … the Stones?  Sure.  Jackson Browne?  Of course.  CSN&Y?  Absolutely.  Mike Finnigan?  Always.  Then I met my husband.  In the past 8 years, he has taken me to over a hundred concerts, most of which were entertainers I had never heard of.  Some of them have been in tiny venues with audiences of 20 people; Others have been in huge stadiums.  The music has opened my mind and my heart and my soul.  I have danced in the aisles, stomped my feet and sung at the top of my lungs. There were perhaps 2 concerts that I didn’t enjoy all that much.  But two, out of more than a hundred, is a pretty good statistic.

three There are no rules for grieving.  When my mom died, and I was crying, my brother pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket with the phone number for a funeral home and started dialing.  I was furious with him.  Wasn’t he upset?  Wasn’t he sad?  What was his problem?  He didn’t have a problem…he simply had a different way of grieving.  When someone passes away, there are those who clean out that person’s closet the day after the funeral and those who want to wait a year or five or ten.  Don’t judge - there are no rules for expressing grief.

copyright 2012 thesethreethings moemasters dianamarkleyguidas 

No comments:

Post a Comment

So Here We Are

Yo, my not-so-little warriors! I thought I would be back here before now but instead I get to be here now. I needed to percolate and process...