it is the last.
the last piece of white key.
barney – through wind and rain and snow and ice and blistering sun – has shed all the clothing of its keys – both black and white. this is the very last of it.
and, even stripped of so much, of the things that make barney look like a piano, barney is still a piano…barney’s soul is tenacious – still a smith-barnes upright – and we can feel evidence of scales and arpeggios and glissandos, of etudes and ballads, of pieces ethereal and bombastic. barney is changed and yet unchanged.
we will each face the storms of the future. we will surf waves and, sometimes, despite heroic tenacity, succumb to the inability to surf. but we will endure and persevere. we will look different and we will feel the same: changed-unchanged.
and, in the center of all of it, while we are on the way to later, stripped and naked of all that is superficial, smack in the middle of our souls, we will still be able to touch the black and white of our lives. just like barney.
“meaning is what’s left when everything else is stripped away.” (suleika jaouad)
*****
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January 24, 2025 at 10:11 am
That piano reminds me of getting closer to God with each passing year. I should like to think as Apostle Paul did: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” There’s your sermon for the day, Kerri! That old piano also reminds me of my mother who loved playing that upright instrument. She was good at it too! Ah, I’ve jabbered too much. Take care!
-Cris
January 24, 2025 at 12:06 pm
We love our piano aging in our backyard. It has taught us sooo many things to remember. xoxo