Guitar (2009.12.30)

I started practicing the guitar in this December. It’s never too late to learn. I want to play it beautifully in the future.

In November, I received a postcard. At first glance, I thought that it was from my ex-coworker, Nr.N. But actually it was from his wife. When I read it, I was so SHOCKED that I couldn’t utter a word for a while. The postcard told me that Mr. N HAD DIED in April.

Mr. N and I had been working for the same company. I left the company ten years ago, and he did it several years ago, but we had been keeping in touch. He was older than me by thirteen years and he had been a trusted advisor to me in every way. I had asked him about the job, about social manner and about which restaurant or cafe I should choose when I was planning a date. His advise was always appropriate.
I respected him for his energy. He was the person who tried the best to enjoy himself. For example, he loved traveling in foreign countries and often made the best of his vacations to go traveling abroad. He even used to LIVE IN foreign country just to enjoy the atmosphere. I learned from him that we should do what we really want to do in our LIMITED lifetime.

When I got the postcard, I felt as if I got a message from HIM. “You can’t predict what is going to happen in your life. I don’t want you to regret. DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.”

For more than twenty years, I had been dreaming just in my mind that I could master playing the guitar and could play beautifully in front of the audience. I love the music by Masashi Sada and DEPAPEPE, and I sometimes feel that I want to perform like them. They are very attractive because I can see that they truly enjoy their music.
On the other hand, I had been thinking, ”Perhaps I don’t have that talent. Even if I tried it, it could be a waste of time and money.”

But Mr. N gave me a PUSH. “Life is what you make it.”


I found a nice small guitar school on the web, bought a reasonable acoustic guitar and FINALLY started playing the guitar. Now I go to the guitar school to take the lesson three times a month. This might seem to be a very small incident, but it might be one GIANT LEAP in my life.

 
Postscript : To my disappointment, the guitar school closed in June, 2010. The guitar teacher had gone back to his hometown in Gunma Prefecture. Now I am practicing myself, but I won't forget what I had learned in his WARM lesson.