Pass it on

Day 13

Not much to report on my horn day yesterday except 8-month-old babies seem to like it. I let my friend's baby touch my horn and explore it (with her mouth cuz that's what babies do). She knew after watching me that the mouthpiece end belonged near her mouth but after slobbering all over it for a few minutes she grew frustrated with its inability to make sound for her. And I was remembering my very first day playing horn in summer band when I was 8 years old. I opened up the case, was in awe at the gold and the blue velvet and the sheer complexity of the object before me, but I had no clue how to play it. I wasn't even sure which end belonged near my mouth until I saw the other kids putting together their trumpets. And I was so embarrassed to have to fail in front of my peers that I went home and practiced for nearly 3 hours. And the rest is history.
But this baby didn't react like 8-year-old me because she couldn't possibly. But she also never has to because now she knows how the horn works! And perhaps someday when she's a little older and can actually retain memories of her experiences, she will remember her dad's friend playing some squirrelly instrument for her and she will seek out a similar experience for herself. And somehow a musical lineage is created and somehow I will have made the world a slightly easier place for the next generation which is what every modern president has urged us to do. I don't normally equate Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with the American dream, but hey when in Rome (or Washington DC)...