Ganeida's Knots

[An intellectual] is someone who can listen to the "William Tell Overture" without thinking of the Lone Ranger. ~John Chesson




Another mother/daughter bonding moment.  The one that started with a power failure ~ & a power failure means no computer!  Oh my!  All our information lives in the computer: venue details; venue times; venue address; Maps & directions.  No problemo.  We have a Refedex in the car ~ except neither Star nor I are crash hot on using it.  Having filled the car with fuel & wrestled with the refedex for 10 minutes I gave up & wandered back into the servo thinking if I could just get a general direction we'd take it from there.

God is good to the mathematically challenged.  The servo was being manned by an Islander who knows us & knows we are nowhere near as ditzy as we sometimes appear & gave me the sort of clear & understandable directions that have me breathing a massive sigh of relief.  Why can't men explain things this simply? " See this road outside?  Go to the very end then turn left.  Go to the end of that, turn right..." Nice & simple & not the least complicated & we made very good time. Star did have to use the refedex to negotiate us through the last little bit but she did really well.  No wrong turns.  No getting lost.  I think she's getting better at this.  I really do.

Now this wasn't a concert. This was a professional development day for music teachers.  You know people who are musically literate & are used to standing up & bossing people about.  They conduct school choirs & school bands & give those lovely little lectures we all like to give our kids about: Nothing attempted, nothing gained; The only failure is the failure to try; Everyone gets nervous/makes mistakes; there's nothing to fear but fear itself ~ I'm sure you know the sort of thing. The sort of good advice we're prone to giving when our kids are baulking at a wonderful opportunity that's come their way.  I figure about 50 or so teachers & 10 of Alison's singers roped in to show everyone how it's done ~ & when it comes to showing how it's done Alison is brilliant!  I've been watching this woman for years now & I'm still amazed every time I watch her work her magic.

I think Alison is one of the few truly kinesthetic teachers I've ever witnessed.  She's running these teachers through the standard sort of practises I witness every week ~ which involves lots of body use to remember a music sound.  I know it sounds weird but it is really effective & even just listening to the warm up exercises you could hear the improvement as Alison actually got these people to sing in tune, in time & according to what she was conducting!  BUT, do you think they would put up their hand to stand in front of their peers & have their conducting scrutinised by someone who does it professionally?  Not on your nelly!!!

As they're not kids you can't randomly insist.  I think one young man volunteered but one & no~one else was even looking like they'd volunteer.  Scattered through this group were about 4 of Alison's junior singers & all I could think was what a lousy example these adults were giving.  I'd'a put my hand up & volunteered [& wouldn't that have embarrassed Star no end!] but I don't even read music that well & have no idea how to conduct anything.  They'd paid good money for this course but everyone wanted to talk in circles & no~one wanted to actually do anything.  It seems peer pressure doesn't abate as we get older but how can we expect our kids to stand against the flow when even adults huddle together in the peer group too afraid to become conspicuous, too afraid to take a risk, too afraid to look like a fool. It was something of an enlightening moment.

I think I need to get off the island more.