The New Gig

Better than the old gig?

gig¹

/gig/

INFORMAL

noun

noun: gig; plural noun: gigs

1. a live performance by or engagement for a musician or group playing popular or jazz music.

   "they relied almost entirely on live gigs to earn a livelihood"

2. a job, especially one that is temporary or freelance and performed on an informal or on-demand basis. [Emphasis mine!]

   "her husband picked up food-delivery gigs"

verb

verb: gig; 3rd person present: gigs; past tense: gigged; past participle: gigged; gerund or present participle: gigging

1. (of a musician or group) perform a gig or gigs.

   "two or three nights a week we were gigging"

   • use (a piece of musical equipment) at a gig.

     "12-string guitar, mint condition, never gigged"

Origin

1920s: of unknown origin.

I have zero musical talents—other than singing entire concerts, solo, at the top of my lungs, while driving long drives, solo, typically east of the mountains. Not many know I’ve concerted with Dire Straits, John Mellencamp, Train, Rascal Flatts, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Hornsby, and Kenny Chesney. Even the Beatles. (I sound excellent when I’m alone, btw.) I’m also a professional air drum musician (I haven’t earned a single cent yet—we air drum pros are apparently not in high demand—but I do play a mean air drum solo/bridge to Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” so I might be available for temporary gigs if you’re hiring).

I digress.

The part of the definition I’m talkin’ ‘bout is noun #2 above, and only the part I’ve emphasized.

It’s been said, so I’ve heard often, that it’s the BEST gig of all time.

Now, I’m only 12 hours into it, but I can say, with absolute certainty, whoever said that…

… they weren’t lying.

I don’t care if you’ve played Carnegie Hall, or Madison Square Garden, or Wembley Stadium, or Radio City Music Hall (and I certainly don’t care if you’ve played the Grand Ole Opry). I don’t care if you’ve sung a duet with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Chappell Roan (maybe), or Taylor Swift. I don’t care if you’ve earned a million bucks for one job’s work. Because…

Being a grandparent is THE BEST GIG EVER!!!

I’m newly freelanced now to only one (at the moment) little soul. It’s my new gig. HE’s my new gig. And I’m now on-demand 24/7/365–or whenever his parents allow. I earn no wage, nor will receive any royalties, but the benefits are already priceless.

And I plan to make the gig permanent. I’m going to be one helluva grandpa!

Did I show you a picture yet? Stay a while, I’ve got plenty. Already.

Pics between one and twelve hours old. And perfect. Even listening to grandpa on the air drums there. (Kidding, he aced his first hearing test!)

This is for the miracle that is my new grandson (I’m not going to get tired of saying that!); and for all those who will raise him, with kind hands and hearts, to be the person he is meant to be. And may they always have kind hands and hearts.

For Jonah…

A blessing in honor of his day of birth—an incantation flowing through me from John O’Donohue:

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For Your Birthday

Blessed be the mind that dreamed the day
The blueprints of your life
Would begin to glow on earth, 
Illuminating all the faces and voices
That would arrive to invite
Your soul to growth.

Praised be your father and mother,
Who loved you before you were,
And trusted to call you here
With no idea who you would be. 

Blessed be those who will love you
Into becoming who you were meant to be,
Blessed be those who will cross your life
With even the dark gifts of hurt and loss
That will help to school your mind
In the art of disappointment. 

When desolation surrounds you,
Blessed be those who will look for you
And find you, their kind hands
Urgent to open a blue window
In the gray wall formed around you.

Blessed be the gifts you might never notice,
Your health, eyes to behold the world,
Thoughts to countenance the unknown,
Memory to harvest vanished days,
Your heart to feel the world’s waves,
Your breath to breathe the nourishment 
Of distance made intimate by earth.

On this echoing-day of your birth,
May you open the gift of solitude
In order to receive your soul;
Enter the generosity of silence
To hear your hidden heart;
Know the serenity of stillness
To be enfolded anew
By the miracle of your being.

(John O’Donohue. “For Your Birthday” found in “To Bless the Space Between Us.” Convergent Books, 2008.)

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