pride and joy

-
-

Peter has been home several months between the band's cruise ship gigs, bringing us humor, music, wittiness and creativity. He was his sister's Man of Honor and our man of help for the August wedding here on the farm. This baby o' mine leaves again in a few days for a third and maybe final three month gig. Last week the ship's official videographer Stephen graced the farm with boyish Vancouver sophistication (that's him on the left), and we ate a burger in our local tavern while they caught us up on their just completed documentary road trip to Chicago and Nashville. This will likely be Peter's last extended stay at home, since he hopes to move on to NY or London after the Hawaii tour, and I have the same melancholy I did in 2006 when he moved out after college and I wrote the prose poem below. There is pride and joy watching our daughter and son pursue their lives. And there is longing to remain with them always. Such is life as we accomplish just what we set out to do: help them on their way.

A Son Moves Out

Guitar picks sprout from the necks of multiple guitars lined up like timbers on the family room floor. The limbs of his body stiffen with the weight of a duffle bag and amplifier that seem to want to keep him planted here - oddly, since it's the music that's pulling him away.

A stump on the couch, I look out the door he opens, at willow fronds hooking and tossing their ochre against the snow field like fishing lines. A gust rolls through the house. I hold on to the couch. The fabric pleat flies up horizontally, the arm covers blow off. I dig my toes into the cushions.

Rooted, I stay. Like a twig, he goes.

Here is a 4 1/2-minute video of Bonnie Raitt singing my favorite of one of Peter's heroes, Stevie Ray Vaughan in a terrific version of Vaughan's "Pride and Joy."