This weekend I performed in an outdoor concert, the first since the pandemic. Even though the forecast called for scattered showers, we were able to stay dry through most of the concert. However, during the last piece, we had an onslaught of weather and most people immediately packed up their instruments and ran for shelter. It took me a while to pack my things and by that time, I was completely wet. Then, I remembered having similar experiences in marching band and remarked to a horn player, who swapped with me stories of parades and shows rained out.
While I was extremely glad to have played, and disappointed by the rain, I began to reflect on my years in marching band, and on these current pandemic times.
The desire to play music is pantamount to me. The absence of music during this past year has made it even more so. We all want to play and perform. But sometimes, we are prevented from doing so. Whether it be because of illness or because of rain, we are forced to stop for unforeseen reasons and seek shelter instead.
But I also remember the resilience that came to me from those long ago times. Back then, when we were outdoors, whether it was a football game, a practice, or a competition, sometimes we just kept on going, weather be damned. We were told to toughen up, and not let the elements affect us. We were too focused on the performance anyway. I also remembered how easy it is to relate to someone who had been through the same thing. “We’ve been through worse than this,” I said.
As musicians, we are all stressed out, overwhelmed, and aching for our collective sense of loss as a community. But as I came to learn, it’s hard to keep a band kid down. We’re made of tougher stuff than that. We know of sacrifice, adversity and hard times. Maybe it’s because we didn’t know any better, or that it was expected of us. But we all have had to learn to do things when we didn’t think we could. But we did. And now even when life is getting us down, we need to remember all that we’ve been through before and somehow survived.
