Image via WikipediaI started playing the guitar in earnest when I was a teenager. Years earlier, my parents had given me an inexpensive one that I could learn on, beat up, and generally have fun with. But, as sometimes happens, mine gathered a lot of dust before I "got the bug." You may remember, my father played guitar and sang; I guess he pretty much assumed I'd pick up the passion eventually, and of course, he was right.
At first all I knew was a few chords that I strung together in no way resembling a song anyone had ever heard. When it was clear I was serious, my father sat down with me, showed me a chord progression, how it reflected a song's structure, and the lights came on. I used to spend hours in the barn, playing and singing to the horses. One of them had injured himself and my job involved soaking his hoof in a bucket of warm water with epson salts. I'd turn another bucket upside down, get comfortable leaning back against the wall with guitar in hand, and play away.
The past few days I've been writing about fathers and Rzeznik's lyrics are a reminder: I'll always have my father with me. When I pick up his guitar and let it take me to a place I've never been before, he's already there. I think about the people I care about the most, knowing they will never meet my father on this side of eternity, and I'm sad. That is, until I remember they do see him, just as I do, whenever I look in the mirror.
"When I see myself, I always know where you are."
(Always Know Where You Are by John Rzeznik)
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