Small: Resolved

I've been around carpentry most of my adult life. And I'm no stranger to the table saw. Recently, while remodeling our century home I ended up doing some fancy stuff closer to the blade than Norm would ever approve of (at least on camera). And sometimes that can leave you reflecting about losing a finger or two. Ironically the two you'd be most likely to tangle up in the blade would be the thumb and forefinger of your right hand, since you want your best players on the ice when the stakes are high. But if I had to lose a finger and I were able to choose, I think I'd pick the pinkie finger on my left hand. Seems like I'd get over that loss quicker than any other. [note to Mom: don't worry: I paid careful attention to Wilkinson's lectures on vectors and physics, which makes boards and table saws surprisingly predictable. I plan on keeping all 10 so please just keep reading]

Tonight, we had the chance to go hear world-renowned concert pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi. (Google that name for a taste on you-tube). That's a pretty big name for these parts. We were fortunate to get tickets. And it seems that they may have even oversold the concert a little, so after all the cushy seats were packed, they started setting up portable chairs on the auditorium floor behind the piano bench. Turns out that not everyone wants to sit on the stage of a concert hall. And, I'm a really nice guy. After a couple of seat-swapping episodes, I ended up right where my Teacher wanted me. I was about 8 feet behind the piano bench, and perfectly aligned with the straight edge of the concert Grand.

FROM this perspective, just about the length of a sheet of plywood away from the player's back, I could see very little of the 'action'. Nice silk shirt, shiny black with a cool tone on tone design that kept my attention for around 90 seconds.... been a while since his last haircut (neck hairs are always the giveaway)... Great music.... Good posture.... WAIT what's that little white thing flashing and dancing past his black-silk draped left elbow. The pinkie finger on his left hand! And so, I watched. Leftist Pinkie performed all of the lowest notes in a set that included some extremely dramatic and beautiful works by Debussy and Chopin. He danced, and jumped and smiled and crouched and tiptoed. He shouted and whispered. He held up all the other fingers all on his own at times. He was often the loudest and most pervasive of all the dancing fingers. He carried the rhythm, often leaping over octaves to land perfectly and bounce expertly back and forth between distant keys to form the foundation of a sound that had most of the crowd (of which I also had a great vantage point) enraptured. By then end of the Debussy set, I was Leftist Pinkie's friend. By the end of Chopin, I was a dedicated admirer.

And here are some of the whisperings of my Teacher: "Nice, pinkie eh?! Remember that passage about the body [I Corinthians 12, I looked it up later] where Paul talks about the eye can't say to the hand 'I don't need you'...?"
"Watch the finger. See its strength: where's that coming from? Right, Shoulders, back, elbow, forearm, all perfectly aligned to support L.P. to perfectly execute that loudest resounding bass note. Check out the audience. They see a blur of fingers. They hear a symphony of music. But listen to that bass note. Isolate it those root notes. What if they weren't played? Where would the drama go? Where the impact of the highs?
Now, what if the support weren't there. What if the focus of that support system was so tuned to the highs and feature notes that the L.P. couldn't strike and dance and crouch and caress with the right proper weight? What if L.P.'s support were unpredictable? " [...This guy would still be back in Italy getting yelled at by some overzealous piano teacher!]
"Getting the picture, eh? ...You've always been a clever kid, Mike. I'll leave you alone now to make the application...but be thinking about how you choose to support the L.P.'s in your life, and then give a little thought to the unnoticed significance of some of your overlooked roles and tasks... "