Knowing

2010.02.03   prev     next

Many years ago I was having a conversation with Martin, a fellow programmer, and somehow the conversation turned to clever acts of vandalism in which we engaged during our grade-school years.

I told him about a funny incident in junior high when, near the end of the school year, I pointed to my sheet music and said to my friend and fellow band member Taylor Jones, “Hey, Taylor. See that quarter-note right there? And that one over there?”

“Yeah, what about ’em?” he said.

“Just a minute ago, those were half-notes. Until they met Mr. Felt-tip!”

Taylor thought that was a brilliant idea, and pretty soon several of his half-notes also had converted to the single-beat persuasion.

The sheet music, I explained to Martin, had to be turned-in at the end of the year, in good condition; then it went on a shelf for at least four years before they could use it again, according to the scholastic competition rules.

Like Taylor had, those many years ago, Martin thought it was a funny plan. But he looked a little quizzical too, and said, “The only thing about it — you don’t get to see the result?..”

“Yeah,” I replied, “that’s the discipline. You just have be satisfied with knowing that it happened.”