You Can Start Again

I stopped by the local music store today — the one that sells musical instruments, not the record store. I’ve somehow gotten myself committed to organizing a drum circle in Baltimore tomorrow, and so I wanted to pick up a few cheap instruments, a couple of shakers, a kids’ tambourine, stuff like that.

As I was leaving a young boy, maybe nine years old, was at the door, carrying a guitar. A salesman was helping his father carry an amp and some other gear out to their car. We were walking in the same direction and exchanged a few pleasantries.

But as I thought about my own relationship with music — and how it’s picking back up again since Starwood — I found that I had a message for the kid. (Yes, I am the sort who delivers oracular messages to children who don’t know me, and I’m amazed that it hasn’t landed me in trouble yet.)

“Hey young man. Something important you need to know. If you ever stop playing…you can start again. I did, and I’m glad I picked it back up again.”

On the back of my bedroom door, where I see it every day, I have a copy of a calligraphy by the Zen master Shunryu Suzuki. It says “Do Not Say Too Late.” If there’s something that you wanted to do in the past but never did — it’s not too late. If you quit something and regret it — you can start again.

We have a misbelief in this culture that one can only really learn brand new things when young. I often have adults ask if it’s too late to start karate training — and I don’t just mean people in their fifties or sixties, I mean people in their twenties. (The answer is no. I’ve had students start in their fifties and would be happy to have someone in their sixties or even older start training with me.)

And so we let so much pass us by.

Don’t do that. It’s not too late. Start now, start again, start again a thousand times if you must.