A friend of mine sent me a video clip of a musical concert. That contains various musical components including Japanese traditional instruments and vocals.
This reminded me a song my 8 years old son introduced to me – Tenth Man Down.
To be honest, my first reaction to “Tenth Man Down” was not all positive. When I heard this for the first time, my mind was still conditioned with the old, familiar, comfortable music genres such as Rock’n Roll and Classical. However, it was not clearly fitting either classical, rock’n roll or whatever I knew. The surprising mix made me unsure and uncomfortable. It sounded odd, confusing and off balanced. Probably the fact that the music came with the kids animation made me think it must be for children, too.
But then, I started liking it. He loved it and wanted to share such a wonderful thing with me so much that he kept inviting me to watch this video clip again and again. How a mother could turn such a child’s passion down? After I listened a few times, I realized I actually felt something nice about the music.
I am learning with children consistently.
If there was no encouragement by him, probably I have dismissed it as something meaningless to my life. I would have missed this opportunity to actually listen to it and come to enjoy the new and interesting feeling to me. After all, now I understand my first negative reaction was the natural refusal to something unfamiliar, which can be dangerous in the survival world. In other words, my mind was very focused and closed. But, when I set such a hesitation aside and spend a bit of time and effort to really experience it, I opened my mind and relaxed, then understood the wonderful side of it. It’s actually not so bad!
Not only that but also the interaction with them remind me how easily I narrow my view of the world. Actually big or small, all children teach me a lot. I shouldn’t decide there’s nothing new to learn from each interaction.
Quite often we miss the learning opportunity just because we are not open. We already decide it should be this and that. With such a mind, you won’t see anything new. And the fundamental problem is the lack of awareness about nothing but your own limiting action.
” We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them” – Albert Einstein
We are trapped by our own thinking.
A good music helps clearing my mind, too. So does a child’s straight forward passion.