Hope

I’ve titled today’s post after the Post A Day topic #18 “What gives you hope?”  It is not what I was originally planning to name it but I think it fits with the post I was planning to write today.

To hope means to expect, to wish, to trust and to look forward to.  It is optimism and anticipation.
I wanted to write about the boy and his guitar.

The boy is my sixteen year old son.  The boy has dreams and a special kind of motivation to pursue things that interest him.  Some of his interests have come and gone – attacked with fervour and then dismissed as he moves on to something else.

This sixteen year old has no interest in learning to drive because “there are already too many cars”.  He will not eat at any fast food restaurant because “it’s not good for you and they don’t recycle the packages”. He enjoys being considered eccentric.

The guitar is his passion. He started playing the guitar about 3 ½ years ago and I think he plays wonderfully – but I’m his mother so I’m biased. Every spare minute of his day is spent practising his guitar, learning new songs, creating his own arrangements and researching guitars and music.

His musical interest is vast.  He likes most styles except maybe pop – remember, he likes to be different.  He is inspired by Edgar Cruz and Tchaikovsky is one of his favourite classical composers.

His guitars are basic – cheap, entry level guitars for beginners.  He wanted something better and started saving his money to buy a good classical guitar. This guitar would be something he chose not one we picked up at a big box store. He has done his research and explained to me the difference between the styles – who knew there were so many?

For Christmas we topped up his savings so he would have enough to make a purchase. It wouldn’t be enough to buy his dream guitar but it would be a step up from what he had.

The Monday after Christmas we headed out to some of the music stores to see what we could find. I tended to point out guitars based on looks – the name on the guitar means nothing to me.  The boy knows though.  He often shook his head as I reached to take one off the rack – not because he didn’t like it but because he knew the price range in which it would fall was beyond our budget.

Several stores and numerous guitars and we still nothing that fit the criteria.  I was beginning to lose hope. We decided to check out Mar-schell’s a small music store in our neighbourhood.

The boy tried a few guitars and then the salesman handed him a Takamine. As he played the first few notes I saw the expression on his face – this was the one.  The boy and the guitar belonged together.  He clutched it all the way home and then began to play – really play.

The boy was up before me every morning during Christmas break.  I’d wake to the sound of the guitar – yes even I could hear the difference between this guitar and his others.

Then, on day four he decided to plug it in to his amp to see how it sounded and there was a problem.  He tried it another amp and still failed to get the results he wanted. Back at the store they checked it out and identified it as a defective pick-up.  Now we’re waiting for the replacement part.

The boy and his guitar have been separated for three weeks.  He still plays his other guitars while we wait.  Together we hope, we wish, we trust and with optimism and anticipation we look forward to the day the boy and his guitar are reunited.  Hopefully soon.