My Attempt to Be Jean Luc Picard

By Mike Johnson

On my evolutionary return to childhood, I picked up an old friend. We haven’t seen each other since third grade. I still remember the melody of “Our First Tune” & how exhilarating it felt to turn ink on a page into flutophone music in an ear.

Thanks to e-Bay we’re reunited. I also bought a copy of the grade school music book with the tune I remembered.

When they arrived, I stopped my world. Within minutes, I was playing that 1965 tune in my 2021 home office. It was the highlight of my week.

I didn’t realize being 8 years old was so extraordinary it’d take me 55 years to return.

Now, with the perspective of a sexagenarian, I’m ready to teach myself how to read music again. So I can play other tunes.

The student must be ready before the teacher can appear.

Perhaps I will learn to play as well as Jean Luc Picard in my favorite Star Trek episode, “The Inner Light.”

Picard played a flute so hauntingly that the prop later sold for $42,000 at a memorabilia auction.

Next to that, the $5 flutophone seems a bargain.

I’ll try to become worthy of that first.

###

Lessons from my 6-year attempt to play the cello: "Are You Playing the Right Instrument?"

Picard's flute also showed up in "Lessons," another of my favorite episodes: "Lessons"

"The Inner Light" with Captain Picard's flute, tune and episode montage in just over a minute: "The Inner Light"

###

Back to Mike's Warm, Wealthy Wisdoms

Back to Mike's Website, WorldsBestWriter.com