Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.”
Now, when I hear “fiddle,” my mind goes straight to Charlie Daniels and that story about the devil heading down to Georgia. The way I see it, “best tunes” aren’t about a one-hit wonder. They are not bubblegum pop that fades when the summer is over. They are American Pie... eight and a half minutes long, two sides of a 45, and still packing a punch 55 years later.
The “old fiddle”?
That is not me, and it is not you either. Old fiddles are the great uncles and grandpas with liver spots and stories you have heard a hundred times.
I’m GenX.
I’m the latchkey kid who grew up on cartoons and cereal, not dust bowls and radio dramas. A Stradivarius might make a sweet sound, but so can that beat-up piece of wood Willie Nelson’s been strumming into history. The trick is simple: play your fiddle loud, play it proud, and give it to the world. Then slather a big old slab of butter on your toast and keep going.
Today is our day... National Left-Handers Day.
I’m left-handed and proud of it. I turn my notebook upside down, so the spiral isn’t under my arm. I swing a golf club from the left side, I wear my mitt on my right hand and put my left hand on the small of a back. My mom told me I was special because I was left-handed. My dad told me not to listen to her. The paperboy is special. The baker on the corner is special. You want to be special? Learn to play the fiddle, then make the devil regret he ever stepped foot in your county.
It’s August 13th. The sun is grinning, the farmer’s market is selling cheap corn, and somewhere there is a kid from Georgia tightening his bow, ready to take on the devil himself. That’s the spirit... don’t shy away from the challenge, don’t play timid, and don’t save your best tune for later. Bang it out right F'ing now!
Whatever your “fiddle” is... music, work, family, love, play it like you mean it. Play it until your hands ache and the strings fray.
...and if the devil shows up for a duel, send him packing back to hell with his tail between his legs.
Now pass the toast, the butter and the jelly. Let's get this Wednesday tuned up.
