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I’ve made a name for myself within the trumpet world. But it’s not for actually playing trumpet. It’s more for talking about trumpet. Over the years, I’ve dabbled with various media projects that are centered on trumpet, and I’ve drawn the conclusion that I simply took it way too seriously. What I mean by that is I tried too hard to turn the trumpet into some sort of hero that’s going to redeem humanity from its fallen state, when the more proper course of action would have been to just talk about it — you know, like trumpet players do from time to time. Struggles. Victories. Occasional harmless gossip about other players. Who’s taken what job, where, and why. Who’s taking the place of the other guy or gal who’s just taken the first job. In other words, just talk trumpet. So that’s the name of the rebranded show: Let’s Talk Trumpet.…
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I picked up a passenger one day. The location was kind of in between the big city and the country. You know those types of places. It’s close enough to the city to get there when you need to, but far enough away that you still get that laid-back country vibe. But it’s not quite the city or the country. “So, are we in the middle of nowhere?” My passenger asked me. I replied, “We’re on the outskirts of nowhere.” He kind of laughed at that, and we continued the ride in silence. But the exchange got me thinking about those periods in our lives where we’ve left one destination, and haven’t yet arrived at the next destination. We tend to imagine life as a series of destinations. The new job. The big opportunity. The finished project. Truth be told, most of our lives are lived in that “in between”…
