Drumbeat
New Perspectives
by Debbie McCarson

My eighteen-year-old son is a drummer. I think he’s pretty good at it, and I have come to have a great deal of respect for him as a musician. Recently, we were in the car together, and I asked him to comment about the drums in the music we were listening to. He said, "I’ve ruined myself for music. All I can hear are the drums. I have to force myself to listen to the whole song." 

I liked him for realizing this. I liked him even more for forcing himself to listen, instead of being content to go through life in a limited, drum-driven perspective of music. I know this isn’t easy for him. He thinks and breathes in drumbeats. He walks through a room playing the air drums. I cannot count how many times he has been given white slips and detentions during his school years for tapping on his desk or banging on the lockers as he walked down the hall. He simply can’t stop. I wouldn’t be surprised if his heart beats to a certain rhythm at his command. Yet still, he realizes his need to let the other instruments break through so that he can appreciate the whole song. 
 
His revelation caused me to wonder how many things I was missing in life due to my own limited perspective. How often am I overlooking something great because I view things through the biases formed by my life experience and my own strong opinions? If I resolve to do anything this new year, it will be to let some fresh perspectives into my way of thinking. 

I have a friend who sees the beauty in everything. We were recently taking a walk in the woods when we came upon a tree on which someone had sprayed graffiti, and on which mushrooms were growing up the side. My friend commented, “Look how beautiful that purple looks next to the off-white of the shelf mushrooms.” My first impression of the tree was quite different. Where I was disgusted by blatant defamation and parasitic fungus, she saw beautiful color and rare form. The difference in our perspectives was so shockingly polar that it took me by surprise. Later, I went back to look at the tree by myself. I studied the mushrooms until I appreciated their color and shape and the way they grew so perfectly perpendicular along the tree trunk.

I had a hard time finding any redeeming qualities in the graffiti, but it was a start.  Challenging the way one thinks is a very hard thing to do. Thoughts and perspectives built on a lifetime of experiences can’t be dismissed so easily. And they shouldn’t be.  They should just be checked occasionally. Have I gone off on a tangent? Am I imbalanced, unteachable, unreachable? 

Passion is admirable, but when it becomes obsessive, no one benefits. Sometimes we are afraid to let our guard down for fear that our finely honed opinions will be corrupted. We hold on to them so strongly until they become one with our identity. We can allow them to become so ingrained in us, that if we lose them, we feel we have lost ourselves. In reality, we become inflexible, unfeeling, and unapproachable. Perhaps if we become unguarded for just a moment, we might realize that our perspectives can be enhanced without being undermined; we can be changed without being destroyed. 

This year, I will risk losing myself by allowing my perspective to be challenged. This year, I am going to force myself to listen to the whole song.                              

Debbie McCarson has spent the last ten years teaching English classes and working as the business administrator at a local private school before starting her own company which offers professional writing services to small businesses and non-profit organizations.

Debbie lives in Barnsboro with her husband and five sons.

Having experienced the escapades of this gender override in her home for two decades, she thoroughly enjoys writing about issues relevant to women.

Debbie McCarson
Providence Path Professional Writing Services
(856) 491-3572
http://www.providencepath.com/