Protégé

He biked her to piano lessons from the time she was small until the time she wasn’t. He piano play inspired him and he forever held out hope that she would become a protégé. When he was young his mother used to play for him and he later learned she could have been a famous concert pianist but that she gave it up to start a family. To bear him. He tried to play but the gift did not stop at his generation, so he waited for the next. At first his daughter showed great promise or so said the piano teacher. With some hard work and years of effort, she too could be as gifted as her grandmother. The mother, for her part, was interested in the lessons as a way to improve her chances in getting into a top school and not for this silly dream. While it was true that the grandmother’s music talent did pass on to the granddaughter, the genuis did not. For genius requires more than skill; it requires passion and the ability to dream. For a while, it seemed the father’s dream and passion might be enough for both of them, but at last it was not. She got into a 2nd tier school and let her piano skill fade as she concentrated on her studies. The difficulty finding a job and a direction for her life after she graduated, only made manners worse. She married a man like herself – serious, kind, practical – which meant no piano in the house. When her father was entertaining guests on this cold winter day, she declined knowing she would let him down. He persisted. She played, hitting some tough notes, missing some transitions. She felt he let her down. He continued to asked her to play. Eventually, she had to stop. As she left for dinner, she wiped the tears away. Generations lost.