Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?
My father played the violin in his younger days and when I was about 8 years of age Dad started teaching me. That was 1946.
I can remember Dad giving me a new violin when I went to a music teacher and started doing grades. About 10 years later my teacher got 2 violins up from Sydney and I replaced the one my dad gave me with a second hand one made in Germany. It had the most beautiful sound.
About 2 years ago I was talking with a cousin of mine prior to his passing. He told me the story of how my dad was saving money out of his pay packet every week to buy his son a new violin. This violin had a Stradivarius sticker in it and little did my father know it was a copy and that it was basically worthless. That was until I had it replaced when I was age 16. It would have broken his heart.
My Dad was a quiet man who never raised his voice and never spoke harshly of anyone. A total abstainer who did a good days work, loved his garden, and his pride and joy was his wife, family and the house which he built. The house and lawn always looking immaculate.
There is always the hurting.
Sometimes the reason why is never found and we die wondering.
The truth lies deep in the suffering and that Truth is the love of Life.
Reactions in life become worthless when the depths of caring for oneself and others take centre stage. There is only pure love with no attachments.
It’s deep in my dads violin.
A Virtual Coffee with Alan 
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