Filling the Loneliness

Not that I can carry a tune in the least, but I think I finally understand why Cape Bretoners are so into music. A few weeks ago, up in Sydney, I was spending some time with a few friends. We spent a Saturday night drinking a little wine and playing a whole mess of musical instruments. We even were able to record our cacophonous production.

We played guitars, a xylophone, a finger piano (is that the right name?), tabla drums, deep African goatskin drums, digereedoo, something resembling a sitar but whose name I don't know, flutes, and probably a bunch more that I'm forgetting.

It was so fun. Mistakes didn't matter and we laughed a lot. So wonderful.

So I think I understand Cape Bretoners love of making music. When you aren't distracted by the city you make time to become creative. In the city, you go to see music, you don't perform it yourself. You have to be a professional musician to go on stage. And even then there are movie theatres, bars, clubs, restaurants, sports arenas and more to grab your attention and keep you from picking up an instrument, or a crayon or a paintbrush and making something beautiful yourself.

Here in Cape Breton, there are few distractions to dull the mind. It's lonely to be sure and it's up to you to fill that loneliness with your own creativity. Otherwise you'll be depressed and sad. Filling the loneliness is what we did that night and that's what I'll have to do from now on. At least until the summer comes but, thankfully, winter always comes again.

So anyone have any instruments they want to donate?