What instrument do you wish you could play?

 I wish I could play the banjo.

 
I’d like to do old rock and punk covers with it.
 
I’d make a video a day and post it to Youtube.
 
I told a friend about it.
 
I said words that often don’t come into my vocabulary.
 
“I might be too old to start.”
 
He took a sip of beer from a bottle and stared at the fire.
 
“Didn’t you tell me you had fifty more years to live?”
 
It gave me pause.
 
Made me laugh.
 
Cause I did say that.
 
I don’t know where I got that in my mind.
 
The time I have left.
 
My hippie mom went to a palm reader in a trailer once when I was a kid.
 
Beat up thing at the end of a dirt road near the river.
 
The trailer, not the palm reader.
 
I don’t recall my palm being read then.
 
And I haven’t had it done since.
 
Not by a professional at least.
 
There were a few girls in college who were “sensitive” though.
 
Told me I had a good aura.
 
Said I gave off good vibes.
 
They might have been a little tipsy.
 
And I was putting off a vibe of sorts, the kind young men do some times.
 
For as long as I can recall, I’ve said I’ll live to 104.
 
There’s some history to it in our family.
 
My mom’s side, everyone died in their forties.  Cancer. Bus Crash. Heart.
 
On my dad’s side, his grandmother lived to 94. My Mamaw lived to 84.
 
There is precedent, and I’m healthy, and take my vitamins, and exercise.  I drink beer and wine, and don’t smoke.
 
I try to limit stress, and I have a positive outlook on getting there.
 
So I did tell my friend I had at least 50 years left.
 
Which gave me pause…
 
Cause can you imagine telling a ten year old with their whole life in front of them they are too old to pick up a guitar?
 
What kind of person says that to a kid?
 
What kind of person tells a dreamer they can’t chase that goal because of a little thing like time?
 
(Well, my grandma for one, who did tell me when I was twelve that I had two career paths.  Paper mill if I didn’t go to college, teaching if I did.)
 
So this year, I might pick up a banjo.
 
I say might, cause I have other things to do too.
 
Everything takes a little time and it becomes a balance of focus.
 
What gets attention.
 
But one day, you might get a link to me a picking and a grinning.
 
Not singing though.
 
I don’t know if I could put you through that…
 
Cheers,
 
Chris
 
I’ve got two free treats for you today:
 
PHALANX
 
UNASS
 
And don’t forget to fill your reader for this weekend with some great new authors below.
 
 
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Starlight January Free Books Promo
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