I was not the best version of myself yesterday. I got up from sitting at breakfast and suddenly, my foot hurt as if I had just severely sprained my ankle. But I hadn’t. I was just sitting! And it continued to bother me throughout the day.
Then I went to try to clean my hearing aids, a process I’ve done successfully four or five times. But my little brush had mysteriously disappeared from the case and I have no hope of finding it. Then the thing that takes out the old miniscule part and replaces it with the new one just wouldn’t do what it was supposed to. I’m okay without the hearing aids all day every day, but they feel increasingly important for teaching, especially when people make comments or ask questions. So the fact that I return home late Saturday and leave for China to teach early Monday is a problem as Kaiser’s Hearing Center will be closed on Sunday. Add to this the maddening re-appearance of daily dizziness and it’s no wonder I screamed out loud in frustration, scaring my wife and starting an argument between us.
So here I am advocating for kindness and acceptance and appreciation and about to publish a book about The Humanitarian Musician and finding myself a miserable, frustrated, angry excuse for a human being. But in some ways, I guess that’s what actually makes me a human being. I’d like to imagine that even the Dalai Lama might get pissed off when he can’t find his glasses.
The other day, one of my Level III students sent me the re-worked lyrics to Billy Joel’s Piano Man. There was a beautiful moment in Level III when I entered class and they were at the instruments and sat me down to sing this song to me. Truth be told, I didn’t know the original, but still was overcome to the point of tears by their beautiful gesture and lovely singing and playing.
So to comfort myself today, I looked up the song on Youtube and followed along with these new words. It was a poignant reminder of a better moment and a better self and that helped restore me. Though the dizziness is still there and the foot still hurts and the hearing aide remains unusable, it helps. If you were in that Level III reading this, you might accuse me of Imposter Syndrome or you might realize that try as I might to improve, I’m still as flawed a human being as anyone. And perhaps that brings you some comfort!
Here's the song:
“Piano Man” by Billy Joel
altered lyrics by 2025 Level 3 Class at Hidden Valley
It's 10:20 on a Thursday
The LEVEL 3 crowd shuffles in
There's an old man sittin' in front of us,
Playin’ his piano again.
We say, "Doug, can you teach us functional harmony?
We’re not really sure how it goes
But it's sad and it's sweet, and in volumes 5 and 3
And it keeps all of us on our toes
La la la ti do ti la.....la la la ti do ti....la so......
Sing us a song you're the piano man
Sing us a song day and night
Level 3 loves you Doug Goodkin
And thanks you for sharing your light.