After posting briefly to another thread this a.m., about how I haven't played much of anything I loved for a long while, I started thinking about WHY I haven't, and drifted into other thoughts...

So, I'll talk a bit, here, and maybe you can identify with some of my experiences.

Did you ever have someone, another musician (particularly if/when you were amateur) -- tell you not to play/sing, because he/she was going to? -- Kind of with the little hint that, if you did, it would not be appreciated?

In my younger years (I'm 41, now), I had so much fun in a little band I was in. I sang and played the guitar. We were religious and performed at Christian coffee houses. But, at a church I attended, I think before all this, there was a camp-out one time, and I actually got a phone call from the sister of this really jealous girl (the pastor's daughter, though, I don't hate them, since I am one) who said, 'You don't have to bring your guitar, because ### will bring hers.' To me, this was like going to the dinner table with a bunch of friends and having someone lean over and say, 'You don't have to eat, because I'm going to, okay?'

I found that it didn't end there. What hurt the most was to have something -- music -- that is an ESCAPE from strife, to be used against me like a weapon. It really felt like a knife.

I'm not great, nothing to bother with jealousy about. I appreciate skill, whether it's mine or yours. What drives me crazy is people confusing the Arts with the Military.

Of course, a lot of this was just a part of youth and it's ways, right? But, even in my adult life, I've run into a few situations.

I was once invited -- or, I went because my husband was invited, with the implication that I was welcome, too, to a little party of bluegrass lovers. Not my main interest, but, I'd kinda liked it. They were rude to me the whole time, deliberately ignoring my request for the lyrics to the songs, etc.. Gradually, I came to realize that this particular bunch of people were misusing the music. Again -- that odd mix of martial and musical arts. Arts with Farts.

Anyway, ramble, ramble. I am still having my morning coffee, so, I'm not really all awake, and that's my excuse.