Pass It On: Boy at piano doesn't get arrested but encouraged

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Boy DOESN'T get arrested......gets applause instead | Photo 02

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Only once, was the desire to step up to the karaoke microphone ever strong enough to actually make it happen. I will confess that the amount of alcohol inside me at the time certainly played a role but it was not the only reason. Everyone, at some point in time, thinks singing a song in public might be pretty cool.  Anyway, I made the long walk to the bar’s DJ booth to first pick a song and then get a slot. And it only took a moment to settle on what I felt was the perfect song. John Denver’s classic, “Country Roads, Take Me Home.” Now, at this point it must be said that I am neither a die-hard John Denver fan nor even a casual connoisseur of his music. I simply wanted a song that I figured I could pull off – and Denver’s ode to family and home seemed as good as any. Boy was I wrong.

While I am certain that most humans alive at that point in time had a working familiarity with the chorus of “Country Roads” I defy you to find me anyone that actually knows the rest of that friggen song. I swear, I could not have been more confused nor unbelievably lost when the rest of it actually played. To say I made of mess of things would be an understatement. Anyway, at the conclusion of my ill-advised attempt at musical stardom the official karaoke monitor(?) for some reason felt the need to come over to our table personally. He leaned down and, putting a generous hand on my shoulder, proceeded to tell my friends in no uncertain terms to “take this idiot home immediately” and “never, ever let him try anything this stupid again.”  They did – and I haven’t.  

Now I was put in mind of that adventure when I saw a commercial that seems to be running a little more often these days. It’s a spot produced by a non-profit called The Foundation for a Better Life. They have a website called values.com where they highlight values they believe are worth passing along. The big idea is that by sharing them with others we can all help each other to lead better lives. The particular commercial of theirs that I saw was called “Concert.”

In the ad we are at a theatre awaiting the start of what is clearly a big-deal, highbrow event. As a husband and wife settle into their seats they soon realize their son is missing – each thinking the other had him. As they question each other we cut to the backstage area, where their lost lad has wandered, and see him spying the “stage entrance” sign. As the parents begin to panic the curtain rises on the young boy – who has now seated himself at the on-stage piano and begun to play “Twinkle, twinkle.”

The parents are humiliated and argue over who has to go get him just as the crowd starts to get irritated at the foolish interruption. Just as the general discontent starts to rise what can only be the pianist everyone has paid to see comes out behind the child and heads toward him, sporting a rather stern look on his face. However, as it is an ad versus real life, he instead encourages the boy to keep playing, reaching around him on the keyboard to fill in the simple song with his own trained expertise. The crowd responds happily and the parents are relieved as what could have been an embarrassing experience turns into a triumph of generosity. The voice over speaks: “Encouragement, pass it on. A message from the Foundation for a Better Life.”  Great ad.

The commercial’s content is said to be based on an actual, true-to-life story. And there really does exist just such a story wherein a small boy was said to have played chopsticks with the great Polish pianist Paderewski.  Like the commercial, the small boy was taken to see a Paderewski concert with his mother, slipped away and somehow ended up on the platform fiddling with the keys. The crowd reacted angrily, demanding the child be taken away until the master himself came out, encouraged the boy to keep playing before sitting with him and turning a child’s tune into a piece worthy of his audience. It really is a great story – but unfortunately, it’s not true.

Paderewski himself believes the rumour may have started thanks to a poster he had made to promote an event he was hosting in support of the Polish Relief Fund during the Second World War. The poster design showed him sitting with a young boy (called Johnny the Wanderer) at a piano while the lads belongings lay wrapped and tied to the end of stick laid nearby. For whatever reason, the story told above is said to have grown from that.

Still, true or not, the idea that a little encouragement is objectively better than the alternative is a value well-worth hanging onto. Most folks’ knee jerk reaction to mistakes or screw-ups is to criticize, mock and, more often than not, provide a frank discouragement of ever attempting such things at all. Now I’m not saying I’d be trying out for American Idol or even X-Factor if that DJ dude hadn’t been such a tweaked knob but was I really that horribly bad? Wait, don’t answer that............