Been a number of months since I’ve posted and, as it is with everyone else in the world life has certainly kept moving along. Today I started the last summer workshop I share with Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser. It is always a bittersweet weekend–we love hanging together, working with young adults, etc., but we both know this is the last stop before the world crashes in upon both of us and we split up for the next 10 months.
But that is for another post….
As I was teaching the first 45 minute block outside in the “land of heat and humidity” (My God it was like teaching in a steam room!!) I noticed a man standing off to the side just watching…and smiling. I knew instantly who it was and waited for the right moment to interject within my instructions “Is that Mr. Glen Rhine back there?” His smile filled his face, he nodded and bowed. At the first moment of “#3 teach clean everything I just taught you,” I went over to say hello to my old friend from my days in the Buccaneers.
Back then, in the 1980’s I watched a man spend all his time working on the small things: hand positions, guiding techniques, foot placement, horn angles, etc. The nitty gritty of the activity. Back then I thought he was missing it–I thought he had no idea what he was talking about. We needed to work on the BIG stuff, not the fact that my index finger wasn’t exactly next to my middle finger. Who cares about that? No one can tell!
Oh what I didn’t know! Oh if I knew then what I know now!!! Success is in the details–the nitty gritty details. Sure the band is loud but the trumpets don’t stand at attention the same way. They look sloppy. Fix that, add the sound and BOOM! Greatness!! …if only it were that simply, but I know you get the point.
Glen and I had lunch together for the first time in 30 years. What a great hour it was to catch up with him, to hear he’s still out there teching high school bands, to hear that he’s even more passionate about not just fixing the nitty gritty but in teaching the students WHY and HOW–not just WHAT! He sat there and he told me about how much he has learned since taking yoga and how it has helped him to break down and analyze backward marching–how each and every muscle in the foot needs to do certain things in order for the backward initiation to occur.
I sat there in amazement and joy as I listened to a 66 year old man speak with such passion about teaching high school band kids how to march. And there was the lesson: He said,
“Heidi, at our age we don’t NEED to be doing this! We do it because we WANT to.”
Do I NEED to be out there with sweat running down my entire body as if I was standing in a shower? No.
Do I NEED to be out there not only in the heat, but the rain, the cold temperatures, and even snow, jumping up and down like a crazed person trying to get a college marching band to wake up and put out some energy. No.
I do not NEED to do any of those things….I WANT to do them. Thank you Glen.
