A simple chord...

Have you ever heard something that took you back to a place and a time, and you could feel that moment all around you? I had something last week that did just that. It flooded me with the memory of a thousand Sunday mornings at home.

It started with me helping a few students find a book, and while I was occupied a teenage boy walked in with his guitar. Knowing that I wouldn’t mind, he started playing…*gasp* *swoon*  *faint* ….yes, I let a student play an instrument IN the library! The way I see it is that at least he is in fact IN the library…unlike the numerous kids that never grace the doorstep. I digress, sorry, back to the subject at hand.

This young man was picking out a song, and right in the middle of me helping another student I stopped and said “play that again”. It was the beginning chords of “Dust in the Wind”. For a split second I was 12 again, or 15, or 19, pick any age that had me at home on a Sunday morning before church.  It’s a song that my dad will inevitably pick out each time he pulls his guitar out of his black case with reddish/maroon velvet lining. I guess it’s like a warm-up song for his fingers because I’ve never known a time he didn’t pick out that particular series of notes when holding his guitar. I had the student play it over again, recreating those images in my mind of growing up with a father that played an instrument. It’s funny to me how a sound, a noise if you will, can bring back a memory so clearly that you can almost reach out and touch it.

I had almost forgotten about this happening last week until today, this same young man brought in a friend who also had a guitar. They sat down in the corner and started playing softly, just going back and forth on songs they knew. One of the guys started playing “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac. It once again took me back to the first time that my dad introduced me to that song and artist, I fell in love immediately. I am blown away how memories that were lost, are brought back so quickly with just a few strums on a guitar. I can think of so many songs that have a memory attached to it just like these I’ve mentioned. I have songs that my friends and I sang at the top of our lungs, at 16, while driving our very first cars, that hold memories that I’ll never forget.  Songs that bring back the thought of a friend or loved one that has passed, but when you hear that song you can remember even the smallest of details about them. I’m amazed at what music can do for the mind and soul.

I told the boys today that they are more than welcome to come and play in my library anytime they want. The music is soothing in the background, and if it brings a crowd to the library, all the better…..perhaps I can even get a few to grab a book on their way out.