As many of you know, my wife has embarked on the admirable journey of teaching in New Britain.  For those who follow us from Upstate New York (I capitalize it for my New York City friends and define it as north of the Bear Mountain Bridge), this district is roughly equivalent to Troy or Schenectady.  Resources in this district seem to be gathered ad hoc and there are many students whose families struggle to find enough money to eat every month.  Teaching math or language arts is tough in this district.  Teaching music can be a whole different kind of tough.  Can you imagine, for example, trying to teach someone to play the guitar when they don’t have a guitar?  They can’t afford to own one.  They can’t afford to rent one and the school doesn’t have enough.

Many of you have pitched in to help in various ways whether it be to donate money or send links to sites that offer grants.  Still others have offered the donation of instruments.  Today we received this donation from a colleague of mine at ESPN.  A huge thank you to Robyn Remick!  This donation, as it turns out, rounds out the last of the guitars and now Jenn’s class will be completely equipped with instruments!  There was a side story though that I thought was a great reminder of life.  You see Robyn’s husband checked the guitar and strummed the strings and placed it back in its case.  He handed it to me and said, “I’m pretty sure this is the guitar that Robyn learned on and the one that our daughter learned on.”  In that brief moment I thought, how much history there is in that guitar and what journey it’s about to embark on.  The guitar was an incredibly thoughtful donation.  The gift of music is even more so!  On the way home Ryan asked me about what donating means and I explained to him that it’s the act of giving something away without the expectation of anything in return.  It is that but it’s something more.  It’s the act of showing you care…about the world, about your neighborhood, about your friends.  It’s something I hope we all think about this time of year.  Thank you Robyn for the reminder!