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Showing posts from December, 2008

Do you have time...?

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A man sat at a metro station in Washington, DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the...

When Christmas Becomes Thanksgiving

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The fall has passed by quickly - but not without incident. Here we are into the Christmas week and time to reflect on the past, present and future - no, not as ghosts but in truly real life fashion. In the past 4 months our piping community has witnessed too many passings for any season... for me with the untimely deaths of both Scott MacAulay and Duncan Gibson for sure. The Clan MacFarlane Pipe Band family is still grieving the additional losses of Jackie Fair and Isabel Davidson. Piping lost one of the last Robert Reid students in the passing of Willie Connell. For this, I will dedicate the present to an appreciation and thanksgiving for life, friends and family and extend best wishes for the future to all. May our immediate year ahead be full of promise and prosperity, in spite of the doom and gloom brought upon by the current recession. We still have our music making events like Winter Storm and other gatherings more important than ever... hope to see you in the New Year... Merry C...