Putting this up today, Thursday, Thanksgiving day - it feels right. If you have any need to contact me, please call anytime. I don’t punch out as Scott the Birdsong Guy, it’s who I am. I’m happy to talk with you anytime about what we do and why or be of service with suggestions and any kind of help. Hey, even if it’s just a pep talk. I mean it. If I’m out of service I won’t answer - but leave your number and I will call you back ASAP… please make sure your voice mail isn’t full, OK?
The California fires… what can one say. I’ve seen up close what scorched earth and smoldering neighborhoods look like. It leaves a mark and you never forget the smell, even if it wasn’t yours and you were just coming through for a bit to help. It’s way bigger than the safe distance of pictures, however wide the shot, can convey. It’s a perspective shifter for sure. But it’s a whole different kind of scar when all you knew is lost – when it was your town. Your home. Your neighbors. This thankfully I can only imagine. Along with the ultimate tragedy of loss of life, which of course no possessions compare to, the collector car and musical instrument worlds are very much reeling from the material loss. One example among many, an elder in our line of business, Wayne Charvel has lost his shop, his tooling, all of his history, his home. His son lost his home as well. Big, big tragedy for the Charvel family and a loss we feel in our own way through the luthier world and rock & roll community. To all who suffered loss of any kind in these fires - from all of us here to each of you, Birdsong Guitars sends its deepest sympathies.
Gratitude… this day of giving of thanks. It is more than one day and this day is more than just that. It is a complicated day for complex people. Bless the simple bliss, but Lord knows that’s not me. Hopefully in your heart there is some of what makes the ceremony – gratitude, coming together to share in life’s bounty – always there through ALL days of the year. It doesn’t take an easy life to be grateful for the gifts, just as it does not take a large full table to share something in ceremony. It is easy for any of us to see in life and gatherings what and who is not there, but this day is about what and who IS. The food and the story, some of it I swallow and some of it I don’t. It’s a heavy day for many people in many different ways, and in that we’re together too. Frame a day in gratitude though, and I can definitely work with it from there! I’m grateful for the freedom to have such decisions, happy to be here at all, and offer all of you – whatever yours and wherever you are in your journey – peace in your circle today, this weekend, and always.
Listening to: Paul Stanley autobiography audiobook; John Lee Hooker & Canned Heat Hooker & Heat.