My piano was an old upright that had been in Kathy’s (my first wife) family for generations. She had left it with me after we divorced and she moved to California. Chelsea used it for years afterward at my house but when she moved into her first small apartment she got a smaller piano that would fit.
When Linda and I combined households upon our marriage a few years later, we doubled up on pianos. I contacted Kathy to see if she or anyone on her side of the family wanted it and I contacted Chelsea to see if she wanted it. No one wanted it.
Chelsea at the Piano
I researched what it would go for on the open market. Turns out it was very similar to many others trying to be sold and would be unlikely to get me much money.
Ready to be transformed
What I Saw
What I looked at was an old, unwanted piano. But what I saw was more than a piano. What I saw was a bookcase.
Starting the teardown
Take away the bulk of metal and strings and what was left was amazing wood.
Piano in Pieces
So I tore it apart, taking every single piece of wood and ditching the guts.
Almost finished – Just some sanding, staining and varnishing still to go.
I then made a bookshelf with the wood and gave it to Chelsea for her birthday.
What do you see when you look?
Drawing, writing, photos and bookshelf by Marty Coleman
Quote by Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862, American author (among other things)
Periscope
You can see the drawing being created during a live video on Periscope.
A tool is something that helps you achieve a goal. When you become obsessed with the tool for it’s own sake you are no longer working on a goal, but are now serving that tool. It doesn’t matter if it is the car you drive, the computer you work on, or the body you live in. If you are exclusively focused on the maintenance of those things then you are living a stunted life. Never lose sight of what you are doing with these tools, why you have them in the first place.
Are you using them or are you simply an agent to maintain them?
“Men have become tools of their tools.” – Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862, American writer, poet, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, surveyor, historian & philosopher
Think deliberately about what you believe and don’t be afraid to change if, upon examining, you find you don’t really have enough to back it up.
This belief can be about your paranoia, your faith, your money habits, your attitudes, it doesn’t matter.
You distrust everyone? Is there really proof that all are untrustworthy or is it just one or two from your past and now you have applied that distrust to everyone.
You believe women are inferior to men? When and how did you make that decision? Do you have proof it is true? Evaluate and see.
What is the nature of the afterlife? How do you know what you believe about it? where did that belief come from? What would happen to you if you modified that belief?
The life that is thought about is the life that is able to progress.
“It is never too late to give up your prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, no matter how ancient, can be trusted without proof.” – Henry David Thoreau, American Author, 1817-1862
Day 4 of aging week! I missed yesterday, just a bit too busy between visiting my dad in the hospital and taking some time off. Sorry about that.
Having dealt with my elderly father all week, trying to get him up and moving after a hip break, I have seen once again how important motivation and enthusiasm is to recovery. In his case we are helping him remember his friends back at his assisted living home (his girlfriends at his dining table in particular)!
But enthusiasm is more than motivation. It is about interest, curiosity, feeling like you have something to reach for, something you want to know about. In my father’s case he has started to think he might want to live to 100. It’s a goal, it’s something to think about and imagine.
We are encouraging that by saying we are expecting another party (we have one every 10 years for his big birthdays) so we expect him to live to 100. He might not make it, we understand it, and he understands it. But we have hope, and we have enthusiasm and we impart that to him as best we can. That is the key, not just to have it in yourself, but to figure out ways to impart it to others.
