Inspiration Strikes Again

   This weekend the ranch hosted twenty seniors, who are a part of an Art Council in North Carolina and were on a bus tour through Utah and Wyoming. I wish I got to hear more of their stories, but one in particular will have to do.
   Last night after the dinner rush was over, they were all sitting in the lobby/saloon and one of them sat down at the piano and started playing. Vivaldi, Beethoven, Clair de Lune. Even an old folky cowboy song in which we all participated. It was absolutely amazing. I just stood there, watching his fingers strike the keys, in awe. The songs were so beautiful and it made me wish I had been forced to play piano as a kid. This morning, I got to talk to him at breakfast.
   I never got his name, but he mentioned in so many words that he was 68, which I found very hard to believe, considering he looked 40. When he was younger, he worked on a farm for a few weeks during two different summers on a plantation in Virginia built in the early 1900s. The original structure was huge with eleven bedrooms and twelve bathrooms. Supplemental houses were built for more staff. All the fixtures were silver and gold. He was told he could sleep in, but he said if he was going to be a farmer, he was going to do it right. He was the first one up at quarter after five every morning. They milked almost two hundred cows twice a day. During his time on the farm he even got to assist with the birth of a calf.
   He's been playing piano since he was four. He has a double degree in organ, his main instrument of choice, and conducting. His symphony has flown in big opera singers from San Francisco and Germany to sing with them. While in Salt Lake City, he got to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, an item now on my bucket list. He even got to sit in at rehearsal and hear the concert and conductor's notes before the show. He told stories about different places he's visited, and how sometimes a name drop would allow him to play some of the most prestigious organs in the world. He even bragged that his friend has the eighth largest organ in the world.
   I really want to take piano lessons now. I want to be able to sit down and play something from the top of my head and wow everybody and inspire others like this man inspired me. I wish we could have talked longer, but he and the tour group are headed off to the airport this morning to go back to NC.
   I love hearing people's stories. I wish I could have talked to more of the group. But I've got a long day's work ahead of me that I'm sure will dampen my spirits a bit. I wish I had classical piano on my ipod!