RE: Are you a Shakunewbie

From: Bud (bud@rajah.com)
Date: Tue Mar 19 2002 - 08:40:50 PST


I've started at the tender age of 53, never played a musical instrument
before (unless you count some really mediocre blues harmonica back in the
sixties or jug in a jugband or some old hippy style guitar back in the same
era--- come to think of it there are building blocks in each of those!)

Learning to play has been especially meaningful for me as I nearly bit the
bullet as the result of undiagnosed congestive heart failure a few years
ago, and even being able to breathe is a real treat for me at this point...
so you can imagine how nice it is to breath into a stick of bamboo and make
a little sound... very nice!

Brett "Bud" Breitwieser ( bud@zenbud.com <mailto:bud@zenbud.com> )
please visit my zen site at http://zenbud.com
zen hermit mailing list: http://www.coollist.com/group.cgi?l=zenhermit

Impermanence:
"To what shall
I liken the world?
Moonlight, reflected
In dewdrops,
Shaken from a crane's bill."
          -Dogen-Zenji

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dcammaro@aol.com [mailto:Dcammaro@aol.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 5:23 AM
> To: Shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu
> Subject: Are you a Shakunewbie
>
>
> Just a thought.
>
> How many 40 + beginners are out there?
>
> I too recently came to shakuhachi. My children think it is weird
> that I am
> doing this. They really find it funny when they see me sitting on
> the floor
> playing. A mid-life crisis? (If it is guess I should paint it
> bright red and
> name it after an old girlfriend.)
>
> My wife prefers that I practice behind closed doors or at least
> when she is
> not home. However, she thinks this is just another phase.
>
> I have found that it seems to have added to my life in that I
> feel calmer and
> more relaxed. I also have noticed that I feel a bit compulsed to
> play, even
> at work during lunch.
> My sensei agreed when I called his lessons "Shakuhachi Therapy"!
>
> Best wishes to all especially to all you Veterans, who have made help me
> crawl along.
>
> Dominic Cammarota
> a Shakunewbie ( you heard this word here first)
>



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