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Autobiography
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Considering
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Four
Meanings of Life
Godot
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A
Major is More Minor Than
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The
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Process (A look at 4 versions of a poem.)
Thoughts
About
Picking
a Major
Quick
Points About Education
Quick
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Writing
Reading
Poetry
and Cloud Watching
Revising
Revision
Reviving
Experience
Reviving
Symbolism
Using
an Audience
Videos
What
Makes a Story True?
What's the Subject of This Class? (Being revised.)
Why
Write?
Writing
and
Einstein (The Difference Between Information and Meaning)
Writing
and
the
Goldilocks Dilemma
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Trumpet
Player, USDA
Approved
by Forrest D. Poston
The guests were seated, and the music was
playing. The day, the very moment, was here. As Ginny
was about to start down the aisle on her father's arm,
my future father-in-law whispered one last piece of
advice. "You can still get out of this, you know."
To a young groom, Myron Schuster could be a bit
intimidating, especially to this groom who was
marrying Myron's only daughter. He dealt in precision,
in hard facts on paper, and when he turned to humor,
that also had precision and an edge that sliced the
unwary. Then along came this head-in-the-clouds
dreamer who was waiting at the end of the aisle,
daring to take his daughter.
Fortunately, this dreamer had grown up with
storytellers for whom the English language was a
continuous game. In an earlier age, I might have been
forced to prove myself with a sword, but now it was
being able to parry and thrust with a pun that won, if
not approval, at least grudging acceptance. Since I
prefer to keep my bleeding on a strictly metaphorical
level, I'm just as happy to keep my swords on that
same level.
Ginny was able to walk her father down the aisle,
although she claims that he was the one close to
tears. Afterward, I had years to appreciate the
father-in-law that came with the deal. Some trace of
the intimidation may have remained, but our mutual
respect was eventually built on more than humor. I
also became increasingly aware of the contradictions.
The man whose job with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture depended on a fine sense of detail, the
man who so often seemed to take a hard line on the
letter of the law, also seemed to be hiding another
man. Perhaps it wasn't so surprising in this family
when an older brother worked with computers in their
early days and also consulted with police as a
psychic. Contradiction and paradox just came standard.
A clue came from a casual comment from an old friend
of the family. Myron was a jazzman. He had played
trumpet in a jazz band in a distant youth. However, he
also had a strong interest in a young lady named
Gladys, whose family took a definitely dim view of
such music and such musicians. Evidently, Myron had a
choice to make.
He married the young lady, and the trumpet vanished so
completely that none of the children ever knew it had
existed. The rest of the story is lost because the
comment came at Myron's funeral, and Gladys had died
several years before. No one else seems to know or
remember what happened or had even mentioned that bit
of history.
Perhaps he simply outgrew that path or gave up a one
dream for another. Perhaps he was so bad that the rest
of the band asked him to quit, or perhaps a star was
never quite born. We'll never know if he forgot the
trumpet completely or still dreamed of hitting those
high notes. Many of us have good reasons to be glad he
chose what may be the road more travelled,
particularly because he travelled it well.
At least some other things make a little more sense
now, like the piano that was always there, and that
underlying impression that music mattered, even if it
wasn't directly emphasized. I think, just maybe, that
it also explains a match that always seemed both
perfect and absurd. The family may not have approved,
and Myron gave up the trumpet, but when the time came
to say I do, I think Gladys was speaking to her music
man.
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Other Essays and Poetry
Something
Somewhat
Vaguely
Like a Resume
Being
Like
Children
The
Blessing and the Blues
The
Cat With a Bucket List
David
and the Revelation
The
Dawn, the Dark, and the Horse I Didn't Ride In On (an
odd, meandering, semi-romantic story)
Ghost
Dancer
in the Twilight Zone
The
Hair Connection and the Nature of Choices
The Mug,
the Magic, and the Mistake
Trumpet
Player,
USDA Approved
Videos
Poetry
Selected
Poems
The
Poetry
Process
Writing by Current or Former Students
Ms.
Write Meets Her Match in Jr. Ms. Write Now
by Heide Perry
I'll
Just
Have Cats
by Cara Hummel
Toys
to
Toys
by Allyson Bowlds
Scribbles
and Bits
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