Frets and Fumbles

One of my favorite worship leaders is a guy named Leonard Jones, who is affiliated with the Morningstar Ministry folks. I've watched him, both in person at a conference and on TV broadcasts, move effortlessly among various stringed instruments. From a sitar, with its huge neck and widely spaced frets, to both accoustic and electric guitars to the teeniny-fretted mandolin to a violin, which has no frets at all, he plays them all, often more than one in the same musical piece. Amazing. I can't even switch from an alto recorder to a soprano recorder without fumbling to hit the differently spaced tone holes. And my teenage son is greatly amused every time I attempt to put our newly acquired small car into reverse and turn on the wipers instead...the wiper lever is mounted on the steering column, where the gear shift lever has been on every other car I've driven since 1992.

Now I'm dealing with the same issue when I'm sewing. I took my backup machine -- a 25 year-old Kenmore-- into church and left it in the room we're using for costuming. It's just enough different from my primary New Home that I'm fumbling. Fumbling for the reverse stitch lever and the presser foot lever on both machines, and upon finishing a seam I routinely, uselessly, rub the thread tail on the backside of my Kenmore, which does NOT have the thread clipper that's mounted there on the New Home. And I marvel all over again at Leonard's ability to always remember exactly which instrument is in his hands.