Wax Sealed Envelopes.....

Don't you miss waxed sealed envelopes?  Wax seals reminds me of my love affair with the piano in the rolling hills of Mississippi when i had the best professor anyone could ever ask for.  Dr. MacMillan was the person who set my feet on the musical path and wouldn't let me turn away from it.  He heard something in my novice playing that made him push me to continue.  I remember going into his office before the first day of the semester to let him know that I'm dropping his class.  This was going to be one on one training and I was frightened not coming from a musical background.  He told me to sit at the piano and he slowly lifted the piano lid and my heart was pounding.  I played Beethoven's fur Elise on the Steinway and was swept away by the sound.  I forgot where I was and went off into the hills and then I came back at the end of the piece. He said, "Dustan, why do you want to quit my class?" I said, "Doc, I'm scared!"  To this day we laugh about that day.

This morning I was sipping my coffee and heard Beethoven and then I thought of playing Moonlight Sonata.  I began to scroll through sheet music online and found it.  I took my computer to the piano and began picking the notes out.  As I was squinting at the page to find the notes that were drifting from the cleft, my teachers hand strolled across the page scribbling notes.  He would count and tap on my shoulder as I would try to distinguish the left and the right.  His wife was a nurse and worked the night shift, so I would often spend a few nights a week listening to classical music and learning more about the piano.  It was classic mentoring.  I would take those lessons and run with it to the piano lab and work on things over and over with no end in mind.  I wasn't trying to learn these pieces to go perform in public.  I    was learning these for myself, to feed that hunger inside that wouldn't go away.

As I finished off another espresso I thought, how do we forget such passions?  And then I realised, I didn't forget it, it just directed my path.  That lustful feeling wasn't just for the piano, it was music and melody.  With this thought Phillip Glass' "The Hours" film score came on the radio and my heart was pounding, the rolling hills were there, Ms. Frances' Mint Julips and Fuzzy navels were there, then it hit me. I still have this life.   I used to write to Dr. MacMillan and we'd reminisce about those times and seal the envelope with the wax seal.  One line of the Moonlight Sonata at the piano and all this came flooding in.  I think I'm gonna keep this feeling around.  The funny thing is, when I googled Phillip Glass, I recognized him.  Not recognized him like I've seen him on TV, but more like I've bumped into him on the street or maybe heard is laughter in the cafe while living in New York.  I'm sealing this one on this beautiful Saturday morning with a lovely blood red wax.  The image is a swan, a musical note, or winding path that goes wherever you want it to go.....