Static Live Magazine April 2019

On the
Block
By Jenny McLain
Coloring in the lines
I’ve come to embrace the fact that one of my best friends
is a 5-year-old. He calls me his “Lady”, because my
connection to him is simply that I’m a friend of his Dad’s
who helped take care of him for a period of time before
he was even 3. I would say that he became attached
to me because of it but the fact is, we became attached
to each other. We have a continuing bond; we go
on adventures, we play games, we read, we cook, we
sing, we dance and we talk – about everything (well, he
mostly talks and I listen). His Dad calls us “two peas in
a pod”. He loves that I have a special talent for winning
a lot of tickets playing one particular game at Chuck
E. Cheese and that I gave him the passcode to my
iPad with his favorite games. I love his perspective, his
confidence, his energy and his HONESTY. This child
is so unfiltered; he has no motive, no preconceived
notions, no inhibitions. I envy his innocence and
agonize over helping him learn things like manners
and humility without breaking his spirit.
The top 25 most played song list in my music library
includes everything from Johnny Cash to Imagine
Dragons because he LOVES music and likes for his
favorite songs to play over and over. He remembers
lyrics and if he doesn’t know a song but likes the tune,
he will ask what they are saying so he can sing it the
next time he hears it. He was looking at pictures on
my phone one day and came across one of me with
Bradford Buckley and said, “Lady, I didn’t know you
were friends with Uptown Funk”. He notices and
remembers everything.
They love to
tell you
I took him once to see Reed Foley at Flagler Tavern and
because I called Reed by his real first name (Johnny),
and because he sang “Ring of Fire” after he saw us
come in, my little buddy thought Reed was Johnny
Cash. And he was really upset that we came in just
before the end of a set so he had to wait to hear more.
I took him to the stage and asked if he wanted to learn
to play the guitar like Reed and he said, “No, I want to
play THAT …” and pointed at a keyboard that was set
up for the band coming on later.
When he was working on a project for school at the
beginning of this year, he had to list three goals for
2019. While he listed his “big” goal as being better at
coloring in the lines, he included learning to play the
piano on the list. He now attends a music class every
Tuesday evening and I went to one of his lessons with
him a few weeks ago. Of course, he wanted to “win”
and be the best at everything in his class of four kids
but he was having fun and he was just as determined
to learn as he was to win.
I suppose we are all born with some degree of that
confidence. We change because we gain experience.
Sadly, we become experienced in disappointment, in
broken trusts, in embarrassment, in failure to varying
degrees. We develop personalities, we absorb the
world around us and we want to protect ourselves
from repeating unpleasant experiences. We become
concerned with coloring in the lines.
I hope my young friend continues to pursue his passion
for music, and I secretly hope he doesn’t concentrate
on coloring in the lines, either literally or figuratively. I
hope he never gets too grown up to call me “Lady” and
I hope I can help him re-interpret the lines and make
the boundaries his own so he can color wherever the
crayons take him.
12
Stay inside the lines.