Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Trifecta

The third Thursday of the month, Park Rapids downtown businesses host a variety of artists for Arts Downtown. Typically, Beagle Books participates in this, but in January, we took the month off. This meant that for the first time, I was able to attend Arts Downtown rather than act as a hostess. Since I rarely get the chance to see our friends Deane Johnson and Jennie Anderson perform with their quintet, I opted to sit in on the quintet’s set at Bella Caffe, along with my 9-year old, music-loving daughter. We had a marvelous time. The quintet performed in Bella’s solarium, which made the set an intimate experience. We sat so close to the musicians we could practically touch them (and we weren’t even the closest). When we climbed the steps to the solarium, Megan spotted one of Beagle’s regular customers, Mike, and his wife, Jacque. Without hesitation, Megan bounded over and asked if we could join them. We ate Bella’s beer cheese soup, chatted with people around us, and thoroughly enjoyed the music. The quintet included a bassoon player. Megan had never seen nor heard a bassoon, so it was fun to witness her new music experience. Other children were in attendance so the quintet played a number of “kid-friendly” pieces such as the theme from Pink Panther and The Teddy Bear Picnic. They also performed a Magic Flute piece (my favorite of the night) and an arrangement of Fiddler on the Roof songs (Megan LOVES Fiddler on the Roof). When the 45 minute set was over, Megan asked, “That’s it?” We bundled ourselves into our coats, hats, and mittens. We shuffled out to our car in -20 temps and headed home. Later, I thought about what had made it such a wonderful evening. Was it the music? The food? The relaxed and friendly atmosphere? It was all those things, but the really impactful thing for me was the sense of community. We were in a familiar, cozy setting with people we knew. We didn’t know every person in the room, but we did know most of them. Here we were, in a small town in northern Minnesota on a cold night in January. We chose to leave our warm homes, televisions, computers, and all the rest (well ok, probably most of us had our cell phones with us) to treat ourselves. How fortunate am I that I live in the country – and I do mean the country, more mornings than not I see deer cross my path as I drive up the driveway, yet I can spend an evening enjoying music and sharing that experience with other people. I could imagine people all over the world, in all sorts of communities, coming together to share music. As far as I know, every culture has enjoyed music as a community event. What else is universal to all communities, I wondered. The obvious came to mind first: food. We love to feast, to share together in a meal. Stories. How long have people shared stories? We are fortunate, to my way of thinking, to have written stories, but there is something special about stories shared verbally. We cherish those who possess storytelling skills. Music, food, stories. Hey, if that’s the trifecta, then I have the trifecta right in my own home. (Megan = music, Tom = food, Jen = stories). But to share those things with my community, that’s where the wonderful really fills my soul.

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