Saturday 7 May 2011

From chicken curry to Bruce Lee - try something new!

Parents of young children - or even the older ones, for that matter - might well recognise the following exchange:

"Here you are darling, try some of this."

"What is it?"

"It's called {insert name of a new food. Something like .. cous cous.}"

"Don't like it."

"What do you mean, you don't like it? Here, try some! Mmmm, yummy!"




"Don't like it!"

"Well, how do you know you don't like it, if you've never tried it?"

Silence. Stalemate. Mexican stand-off. Impasse. Dead end. No through route. Cul-de-sac. In my family, this kind of thing is a veritable Cuban Missile Crisis.

I meet grown-ups who are like this, too. Are you perhaps one of them? Is a reluctance to try new things something you've not quite grown out of?

Now, don't get me wrong. I can understand one's reluctance to try curry again if, when in your first year at University, some unkind tormentor ordered you a Chicken Phaal or a BollyWood Burner (ouch ..) I guess I could understand a certain reluctance to go within about 200 yards of an Indian Restaurant of any description. But even so, that wouldn't stop me from trying to tempt you with a nice gentle Chicken Kurma, because I am that kind of person.

If you go through life without trying new things, then imagine how much you could lose out on. Likewise, if you pay too much attention to the idea of something, instead of just getting on and doing it, then you could also fail to see the big picture.

I love that line in Enter The Dragon. Bruce Lee says - "It is like a finger pointing a way to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory."

My musical life is like a box of chocolates. My rules are - One: You never know what you're gonna get, and Two: You gotta hand them round.

I'm not willing to sit here and keep it a secret, how much fun it is to play improvised music in a group of like-minded people. No. Even if your previous experiences of music-making have been painful - trying to hit the high notes in "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" at the school Christmas Concert last year; being asked by your wife and children NOT to sing "The Eye Of The Tiger" every time you jog up to the shower; being told "Yes dear. Here's a triangle. Now go stand at the back of the band, ok?"

These are all scenarios taken from the real lives of people who have told me they don't even like the IDEA of improvised music making. My response? Give it a go, then tell me again how you feel. I think this kind of activity is RESTORATIVE.

Consider it not so much chicken soup for the soul, as chicken kurma.

And, incidentally, if you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this blog post, please get hold of a copy of this book:



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1 comment:

  1. Yes, its a common behavior from most parents to kids. I hope this article will help them to find a new way .

    ReplyDelete