Piano Lessons for Baisol
Mom has a way that grows around her when she is playing piano. She begins to feel the skill of playing as a lifeline to something in herself. The way her attitude changes towards some things is remarkable. But perhaps most jarring to many, but I’m so lucky to be in a place where it no longer is for me– she almost without exception will play while her mind imagines a larger group of people, gathered and listening. She even told our friend Ron recently that she likes to play for others, not for herself.
She will turn around and begin to speak to the crowd assembled. I’ve come to want to leave her in such a place, and construct a bubble around her as she sits at the keys. I truly envy only needing to touch an instrument– musical or not– and be able to immerse myself in a cocoon where things were as I constructed a safe place. She returns to lesson form, and begins to teach. She has even done so with my Baisol, the younger cat. He sat beside her as she played one evening about a week ago, watching mom on the keys intently. She shuffled over, asked him if he would join her. For some reason this particular evening Baisol was more interested in the piano keys than he had ever been, and the piano itself warranted inspection.
From his perch on the piano bench he would begin to paw at the keys. Not actually pressing them, but mom was playing Sentimental Journey and began to play only on one end of the keyboard, while trying to teach Baisol to play along. I really wanted to video this, but I wasn’t able to get the beauty of it in time, not wanting to startle the already in over his head student.
Anyhow, at one point mom was trying to get him to play a particular key to pick it up, he pawed a little at it and I sensed a serious cute gush through me. It was, truly, the magic of the piano as it can transform mom into confidence, and with the right student, allows the teacher to shine.
There is a special place Mom can go to when at the piano. It transforms from the piano in her apartments living room to being the piano in many scenes and places throughout her life. She is placed within these scenes, and gets to be the matriarch once again. Whether it’s Baisol or a house full of kids she senses, she becomes the anchor to the room. Not just a valued participant, but the one upon who the joys and activities of others rely. This is not to be underestimated– this is the self-value of someone who wants to not only participate but contribute. She is forever the teacher she was in raising me and teaching thousands of kids like me throughout the years. This is just one more lesson– an extraordinarily powerful one, regardless of whether Baisol can now use his paws to play notes.