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| Thinking It Over |
A couple of Saturdays ago, I spent some time chatting with Paul Prestopino
at Howell Living History Farm near us. He and his band—the Jugtown Mountain
Country String Band—play there fairly regularly when there are special events.
His name may not sound familiar to
you unless you went to Hightstown High School several decades ago. But since
high school he’s had quite an illustrious musical career. He played with John
Denver with the Chad Mitchell trio, later known as the Mitchell Trio. He helped
John launch his solo career. Then, for years he had been an accompanist for
Peter, Paul, and Mary, and still does occasional gigs with Peter and Paul. There
are many other musical credits to his name, too numerous to mention. Not
surprising though—he’s a great musician—guitar, mandolin, and banjo just to
name a few.
Paul has a lot of interesting tales
to tell about a world that has long been of great interest to me as well as a
kind of mystery. How does a person move from the realm of an ordinary
appreciator of music into the realm of well-known, even famous, provider of the
same? I’m not wanting to know that
because I think I have a chance of starting some great musical career now that
I’ve retired from the ministry. At 75, it’s hardly realistic to even imagine such
a thing, not to mention the very modest talent I have of playing the
guitar and singing.
What I’m interested in is the story.
The story is the thing. Not just Paul’s story, but all of ours. We each
have a story to tell about the unfolding of our lives that is not only
interesting, but informative, reminding us of who we are and where we’ve been
as well as how it’s been. It’s sometimes the case that we don’t feel like
we live very interesting lives, but that’s because our world favors the more
spectacular and grandiose.
I took a writing workshop up in the
Berkshires several years ago in which most of the people there were wanting to
write a memoir—a very popular trend these days. We each shared some of our life
story with each other and found it to be a great exercise in life-appreciation,
giving us a better, more accurate sense of the value of our own lives as well
as the value of telling “the story” with others. It’s not that anyone was going to make a biographical movie of us,
but that we got a clearer understanding of the “meaning of life,” if you will.
At any rate, I was thinking of an
exercise that would perhaps be meaningful to anyone who might wish to do it:
that of writing an overview of his or her life, using each decade as a “chapter.”
It wouldn’t have to be long. It could be just a brief listing of the major and
minor events and experiences in each decade.
The form doesn’t matter. It’s more
meaningful if you design your own.
Just a thought.
Good thought!
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