day fifty-six - retail therapy
There have been many times when I’ve purchased something when I’ve felt down in an attempt to fill whatever void I may have with a material object. Sometimes it works, but it’s oft fleeting, leaving me with the same void, yet another in my bank account, and another physical thing to fit into my life.
One time, I went into my favourite music store. The kind where you can be immersed into a different world surrounded by music, instruments and like minded souls. I had an hour gap between students, and money burning a hole in my wallet - a dangerous combination indeed.
Bruce was the manager at the time. He’s a beautiful soul, connected to those around him, has a disturbingly large repository of knowledge on seemingly all matters, and is dangerously perceptive. When I openly said “Bruce, I need some retail therapy. What have you got for me?”, he seemed to know that the sheer material object wasn’t what I was after. Without knowing it myself, I needed connection. I needed interaction, something, anything, that would make it feel better.
He looked around, but we couldn’t find anything I didn’t already have… until he spied a bust of Lizst. It was a customer order that they hadn’t ever come back to purchase, and had been sitting on the shelf for several years. “Let’s play a game. If you can name a work by this composer, it’s yours!” he said.
I’m quite terrible at remembering the names of compositions. Having grown up immersed with music, particularly classical music, I’m so very familiar with vast amounts of the repertoire, but never attribute them to a composer or title of a work.
Somehow though, I remembered the Hungarian Rhapsodies that my parents had played as piano duets when I was a child. This happy memory was my key. And with that, the bust of Lizst was mine.
Bruce didn’t have to do that. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But he did. It was kind, generous and compassionate. Now, that same bust is in my teaching studio. He has been since that day, and will always be.
Embodied in that small faux-marble bust is not just the image of a wonderful composer, it now reminds be of both my parents and the wonderful gift of music they have given me, but also of my friend, and the kindness he showed me on that day - and that’s the best retail therapy ever.
Kilt of the day - Black Stewart Hiking Kilt
Soundtrack of the day - Franz Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 for piano four hands (arr. F. Bendel) Performed by Łukasz Szubski & Krzysztof Włodarczyk
