In another life

If I weren't a musician I might be a chef. Or I might be a furniture restorer. Or maybe a painter (as in houses). When I was a kid I went through all the usual phases: I wanted to be an architect and a veterinarian. Then I wanted to be a preacher. My degree is in psychology, so something all that line was always a possibility. I wound up a musician.

Rod Dreher comments today about his passion. He's a journalist but imagines life as a chef.

Plenty of amateur musicians comment to me that they wonder about changing careers and doing music professionally. I ponder leaving music (regularly). When Libby and I got married, folks used to wonder wistfully what it must be like at our house with two accomplished musicians living together. My pat answer was that it was very, very quiet. After a day of music, usually the last thing we wanted around the house was more music! Now with three boys we regularly get, "are they musicians?" To which I reply, "God, I hope not!" In reality Eli is making his own way as an inquisitive percussionist; Briggs is a break-dancer; Calvin can sometimes clap to a beat.

The thing is I suspect that once we are doing our dream job, it is no longer a dream. All the headaches that go with the job come to roost when we have to earn a living at it. I don't know if it's a case of trying to catch clouds, or out of the frying pan into the fire, or the grass is always greener, but it's some melange of all that.

I've got a friend/colleague who is an excellent trumpet player. She took her time finding her niche, but seems to have settled on chef-ing. (Her culinary school team placed third in a recent national competition.) I suspect she's wondered off and on about which career path to follow. She obviously does both things well. For my part I've told her to go with the cooking thing and let trumpeting take second place. I told her I would drop her name whenever I could to music colleagues looking for trumpeters in her new location (Raleigh, NC).

I usually tell folks wondering about the magical life of music-makers to stick to their day job and let music be a nice hobby, so that it can continue to bring the same joy for many years. I'll most likely do the same: slogging away at making music and helping others find bliss in it, and wondering what life would be like as a pirate captain.