Going Home

It's funny, how sometimes one picture will put you in mind of another, totally unrelated, from years and years before.

You may have seen the image of this young lady over the weekend.  She's a piccolo player in the Villanova band, and she was there in Pittsburgh on Saturday as her Wildcats lost to the North Carolina State Wolfpack, 71-68, ending Nova's participation in this year's March Madness basketball commotion.  Just as the dance band on the Titanic played on as the lifeboats were filling up, the Villanova band played in the final few seconds of the loss that meant the team was going home, and this young lady, whose name has been mercifully kept out of all the news stories, hit all her notes through all her tears.

Part of college is learning about how life works, and this, while sad, is part of life.  Games are lost, hearts are broken, job offers don't materialize, cars crash, friends betray.  But, keep playing, stay in the game and don't give in to your tears, because games are won, love comes calling with a perfect bunch of daisies in hand, the right job opens up at the right time, brakes work, and friends remain loyal until the end.

And all the while, you keep hitting those notes the best you can.

The picture this reminds me of is the one that Ed Clark (no relation!) took for LIFE magazine in April, 1945, when the funeral train bearing the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt left Warm Springs, GA.  Chief Petty Officer (USN) Graham Jackson played his accordion (the song was called "Going Home") in tribute, as his tears ran down his cheek.

I love music, I love accordions, and I love people who keep marching forward through their tears.