My daughter made a list of wishes to send to Santa Claus this year. Then when Christmas morning rolled round, she got some of the things on her Santa list. She also got a few things that she didn't ask for. She told me later on Christmas day that Santa always brought her some cool things that she didn't ask for but were just perfect. She said Santa thought of neat presents to bring her that she never even thought of herself.
Santa used to do the same thing for me when I was a kid. I'd get a few things that I never thought to ask for.
One Christmas in particular stands out in my memory. I was about 8 or 9 years old. Two of the things Santa brought me was a little blue suitcase and a guitar. The suitcase was great. I did not have my very own suitcase before that. I wonder if that first of many suitcases I have owned is what fueled my wanderlust for travelling.
The guitar was a mystery to me though. Santa forgot to include a how-to guide or music books. It sat propped in the corner of my room as I grew up. It lived in all my homes that I have occupied as an adult. It was propped against the piano in my livingroom at my house in Wild Peach, Texas. That was the house that burned down completely while we were out of town in winter 2006.
And so that guitar met with a sad end. I never learned to play guitar. But my cousin Micah did. He told me awhile back that the guitar I got that one Christmas so many years ago was what spurred him to learn to play the guitar. He said that every time he was at our house visiting, he picked up my guitar and picked at it. He saved and saved his money as a child until he had enough to buy his own guitar. Then in high school and college he had his own rock band.
He still plays guitar even though his rock band years are long over. It makes me happy to think that my guitar that sat un-used by me, brought some joy to someone else. I think if I had known how much he yearned for a guitar way back in childhood, I would have simply given him that guitar. I feel guilty now for having that guitar and never using it while someone else would have used it and loved it far more than me.