The ads for Black
Friday have been going strong for several days now. They've been
telling us all we really cant live without something we have done
without for all these years.
Or as a friend
tells me, Black Friday is when people buy a $300 tent to wait in line
to save $50 on a television. Or it is the day that thankful people
get up to push and shove to spend money they don't have on items they
don't need.
At least that is
what I expect of Black Friday.
Sometimes, though,
we just need to sit back and think about some of the simple things in
life. We say it often, but do we really understand it? I think I do
now.
Something that
happened in my life that really taught this old boy, at age 57, that
the things we take for granted every day really do matter most.
A couple of months
ago, I was checking my Facebook account when I saw where Paul Martin,
who had been a member of Marty Stuart's band, The Fabulous
Superlatives, had posted a YouTube video that caught my attention.
It was Kathy
Mattea, Suzy Bogguss and Allison Krauss, three of the sweetest voices
this side of heaven, singing the classic “Teach Your Children” at
the White House in 1995. Legendary guitarist Chet Atkins was in the
video while Martin was playing the pedal steel guitar. I had known of
Paul for many years, dating to his time as a member of another of my
favorite groups, Exile.
But I had no idea
about this gig, in which he was actually a last-minute replacement
for someone who had an appendicitis attack. If you have never seen
it, check it out here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g795h7HaZsw
What really got me
about the video, though, was the song itself. I had not known about
this version of the great Crosby, Stills and Nash song. Apparently,
it had been very popular 20 years ago, but I never knew that three of
my favorite singers had this version of one of my favorite songs.
Those who know me
know that I have cochlear implants. Since undergoing the surgeries to
stimulate my cochlea, I've had the world of music reopened. From
about 1992 or so until having the second cochlear device implanted in
2010, I rarely listened to music. Usually, it just sounded like
jumbled noise.
Dr. Kari Mobley,
then my audiologist at the University of Kentucky, introduced me to
Pandora and encouraged me to listen to as much music as possible.
But I had not
thought about “Teach Your Children,” which I actually heard first
performed by The Imperials, a gospel group, back when I was in high
school.
The video Paul
posted might have been some good entertainment for many people. To
me, however, it was another link to those days before my hearing
deteriorated to the point of giving up something I love.
After watching the
video, I immediately got out the inexpensive guitar I purchased last
year. I started strumming that “D” chord, the key in which I had
played “Teach Your Children” more than 30 years ago. Then “G,”
“A” and so on. Admittedly, it was a bit rough and my fingers did
not perform some of the runs I had been able to perform when I had
played a 12-string guitar years ago.
To many, this might
seem silly. After all, it was just a song.
But it is the very
point I was profoundly reminded of when Paul posted that link. Just a
song, regardless of its magnitude on the charts, can be something
more profound to others.
I heard it. And
yes, I could still play it, rough as it might be.
THAT, is a
blessing.
It's so easy to
overlook even the smallest things in life, even simply listening to a
song or strumming a few chords on a guitar.
But they, too, are
blessings. I will never take them for granted again.
“Every good and
perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the
heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James
1:17.
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