JAZZ musician Mose Allison was asked in a radio interview yesterday if he was trained in classical music. No, Allison said, he'd only had some elementary piano lessons as a child, just enough to learn to play a few tunes. Melodies that linger
for lifeEverything he's created musically since then, he said, has been a series of variations based on on those two pieces, "Indian War-dance" and "Country Gardens."
That got me thinking about how often people play "the same old tune," even if that means they have to "face the music" again and again.
Of course, that would be the downside. On the up, the "tunes" learned early in life are undoubtedly the themes that underlie character and personal integrity. They're also the "melodies" on which we build our careers.
I still remember the wooden puzzle, a map of the United States, that I must have put together thousands of times as a child.
Because of it, I'll never forget that Helena, Baton Rouge and Carson City are, respectively, the capitals of Montana, Louisiana and Nevada (vital information for Trivial Pursuit fans). But, more than that, solving this puzzle made me appreciate very early how satisfying it is to bring order out of chaos.
Somehow, that joy led me to a career as an editor at a newspaper, where we attempt to defeat chaos on a daily basis - "just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined."
That's life: endless variations on a theme.
