Friday, March 9, 2018

Wiggling Fingers

March 9, 2018

“Do you ever wish you had taken up a smaller instrument?” It was a reasonable question for Linda to ask as I struggled to get my bass through the door and out to the car where it would take some serious contortions to fit it through the door and into the back seat with the neck running along the console. 

“The problem with little instruments is that they have to play all the fast notes. I could never wiggle my fingers fast enough to play a small instrument. I’m more of a bass guy, for sure.” It’s true. I switched from saxophone to bassoon in high school because everyone else who played sax could wiggle their fingers faster than I could. There was no competition in the bassoon department. When it comes to concert and jazz band, the string bass is more or less comparable to the oompah in a polka band. There is to be sure, complicated music for the bass. The bass students at the college can wiggle their fingers in ways I cannot, and when they use the bow, it actually sounds melodious, unlike my scraping and screeching. But for the music we play, I can almost keep up. I am the king of quarter notes!


Life is like that. In the church, St. Paul reminded us that each of us is like parts of the body, with specific roles to play that others cannot. We don’t all get to be stars; most of us play rather ordinary, albeit necessary, roles. The rapid finger wigglers get to play flute, violin, trumpet, or clarinet. The slow finger wigglers like me play bass and tuba. Both are necessary for the music of life. It takes a bit more effort to transport the bass, but if it were small, I’d have to play fast finger wiggling music, which wouldn’t sound very nice at all. So the bass is unwieldy, but it fits me, and I am thankful that I have a place in the band. And in life.

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