The old timer could really play that fiddle and the banjo player was lost trying to keep up with him. The man could play just about anything that you could name, and songs that had been forgotten long ago. This man was something really special and yet, very few had ever heard him play before.
When asked, where he came from or where has he been, he would just say From around here and there. If you were to check up on him, you would find that he had been in prison for a crime and had only been paroled for a short time.
But he would also tell you that being in prison was not his punishment for doing something bad, but to teach him how to make people happy and to feel good about themselves. He told a story, that God spoke to him one day, than he under-stood why he was in prison. He would learn to play his fiddle and it would help all the other prisoners to find the path to serve others and help them all, over the rough spots in the roads. He was also told, that on the day that he was turned free, he would receive a very special violin that would play anything and everything he was asked to play. The sound that this violin gave out, would be the purest of all violin sounds. The man never had any formal lessons or did he know anything about music. He listened and than played what he had heard.
Other masters of the violin that heard him play, could not believe that he had no formal training and many thought it was some kind of a trick. But the sounds that came for his violin was so perfect and when asked, he would say: it was God playing while he held the violin for him.
The violin payer was sought after to play in every country around the world and for a nations own elite. But he chose to play for the poor, the tired, the unhealthy and when he was given money, he would donate the money to the ones who needed it the most. Needless to say, the lord was very proud of this man. He would live on until he chose to call it an end.
But at ninety years of age, he was playing more beautiful than ever and the more he played the more it helped the people that heard him play. When God had ask him if he wanted to stop playing, he was one hundred years of age. The lord made him feel good and he had suffered no illness, never took any medicine or had he ever seen a dentist. His smile was still as pleasant as ever, his life was a simple one and he required very little to sustain himself.
When he was ask if he wanted to stop, His answer to God was: Not until he had taught others to play and to carry on from where his playing would end. So he was soon teaching others and they were good, but none as good as the old violin player, He said to God, can you not take this instrument and hand it to some other person and the violin would play the same as it did for me! Then God told him, the violin only played what it felt that came from the man playing it.
The Lord and he, would search for that very special person. And then one day a small but very talented child was found and she spent many hours each day with the old Violin player. Then came the day that he handed the violin to the little girl and she thanked the lord, and she thanked the man and was well on the way. She never was considered to be as good as the old man, but she was the best that could be found.
As you know, there is but one God and there will only be one old man that could really play the violin. What you do in life or will do in life, is up to you, What ever it is, make it the best you can do.
Okay everyone, all together now ‘ah one’ ah two’ pound that pan with the spoon.
Ring that bell and try to keep up with the others!
By; Ben R.
10/14/2010
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