Spoons and Piano Strings.

I was fortunate to grow up in a home with a piano. It was a source of great entertainment and joy throughout my childhood. It was also a wonderful instrument to try play when no one was around to hear. One day, I wandered over and played the few songs I knew and was surprised by the strange sound when a certain note was played. Whenever I played middle C, there was a sound that was not a middle C. I tried it again with the same result. I couldn’t figure out was wrong until I lifted the lid of the piano and saw a spoon resting on top of the strings. I now know it was put there in an unsuccessful game of find-the-spoon, but the spoon, resting on the strings, made an awful sound where there used to be a pleasant one. 

The moment came to mind the other day as I learned about the ways in which our stories play a part in our lives. We all have stories of people, places and things that have made up the melodies of our lives. Such stories can ground, comfort, and inspire us, but the truth is we also have stories that are not based on reality. These are stories we tell about our stories, and they play a completely different melody from our true one. Like a spoon resting on piano strings, these stories distort and change our true melodies.

There’s the girl whose father, determined to provide for his family, worked two jobs and was rarely home. That was the reality, but she began to sing another song, that her father was uncaring and didn't love her, and it changed the melody of her life.

There’s the child given the expensive opportunity to go to a prestigious boarding school. After dropping him off, his parents cried all the way home because they could not bear the thought of living apart from their son, but their happiness and financial woes were second to giving their son the best education possible. That was the reality, but the son believed he was “sent away” and not a priority in his parent’s lives. It forever changed the melody of his life.

There’s the child, surrounded by the praise and adoration of her parents, who always heard there was nothing she could not do and that she should reach for the stars.  Instead of living an inspired life, she lived as if she was not good enough. Her parents wanted to instill a sense of value and optimism, but what she heard was the expectation to achieve great things. It was an overwhelming burden her parents never intended.

Like the spoon in the piano, we have things that lie on the strings of our lives and change the songs we hear. Knowing this is the first step toward reclaiming the the true melodies. Yes, we need to lift the lid and find the various "spoons" resting on the strings. It’s challenging and uncomfortable work, but, in the end, distracting, misleading, and hurtful songs can disappear, and, we can hear the true melodies of our lives once again.