Sunday, December 12, 2010

Organized thought

I used to subscribe to the Shel Silverstein school of thought regarding playing the organ in church.

Witness his poem "HOW NOT TO HAVE TO DRY THE DISHES":

If you have to dry the dishes
(Such an awful, boring chore)
If you have to dry the dishes
('Stead of going to the store)
If you have to drop the dishes
And you drop one on the floor --
Maybe they won't let you
Dry the dishes anymore.


See? Replace "dry the dishes" with "play the organ" and you've got it. Well, maybe we ought to tweak the word boring, and ... oh ... no shopping anyway. But hey -- the "drop one on the floor" bit is not far off. I make some glorious mistakes. And still, the choir director keeps asking me to play the organ. Aargh!

Silverstein's theory? IT DOESN'T WORK!

So the absolute best antidote to walking off the stand after yet another iffy attempt is to see this in the congregation:

This is an after-church reenactment, of course.

I was mortified and warmed all at once by James' on-the-bench cheering section. When I quickly pulled down his arms, it was really to wrap that crazy boy in a hug.

4 comments:

Jennie said...

I'm sure it was great. Hey, at least you can play. The only thing I can plunk out on the piano is Give Said the Little Stream and it is really rough! Good Job Jen!

Kate said...

What a cutie!

Circe said...

You were amazing. You underestimate your abilities. It's a good thing the rest of us don't! I'm in awe of you every week at choir and delighted every time I get to hear you play.

Amanda said...

Hilarious! Don't you just love the unconditional love kids offer? By the way, I'm sure you were much better than you think. You've always done a great job!