My son and daughter-in-law went somewhere the other day and left our grandson,  their two-year old son with us for a few hours. He screamed and cried so loudly when they left, “Mommy, Daddy,…” that I thought the neighbors down the block would hear. (some exaggeration here).

But seriously, he really cried like he meant it. He eventually calmed down and was a happy camper, but his method of communication that was so “real” and “honest” made me think about my own honesty in my communication.

Do we all express our feelings to our close ones like we really mean it? Or do we muffle our sound because we want to please the next person? Are we afraid to look bad so we don’t express what we really mean, or at least tell the other one  “Let’s agree to disagree,” rather than misrepresenting ourselves and our reality?

GRAND SONS TO GRAND PIANOS:

I was playing a grand piano at a client’s house on their Steinway grand piano. As the sound was somewhat muffled due to the closed lid,  I opened the lid. I gently moved the countless family photos out of the way, and  propped up the tray for some sheet music to be placed.  I then  folded the lid back out of the way so that the strings and hammers were uncovered. Ahh…the full sound of a piano echoing across the room.

After all, it is not every day that I get to play a Steinway piano. The only thing I refrained from doing was lift the lid up high at an angle and allow all the inside action to be exposed, for a full and extended volume. That experience would have to wait for next time.

I don’t always get to use my full voice. Often I only express a meek, unassertive voice, not wishing to expose the full range of action of my thoughts.  This is appropriate (I would say!), and also I feel too vulnerable to be so loud all the time. I wonder if the positions of  a piano and its lid are a metaphor for our methods of communication.

We can ask ourselves questions from time to time:  How honest we are with others? How true we are to ourselves?

Then, we can take our cues from a grand piano which alternatively takes on one of three positions for the player to use.

Are we muting ourselves? Is our lid closed all the way, with only the ivories showing for clicking and depressing, up and down, but not projecting so that it can be heard?

Delicate picture frames, encasing photos of smiling faces  adorn our exterior, but no one really gets to see our interior – our soul. We don’t want to expose anything, so we stay all shiny and polished on the outside.  But when communicating to our close ones the music of our heart, don’t we need to project sometimes all that action – strings, hammers and full range of feelings — clearly and honestly?

The sound of a piano when the lid is down is not the true sound of a piano. Aside from the damper (loud) pedal that the pianist can depress with the right foot, there is really no way to project a full sound with possibility of the range of dynamics.

DISCERN AND DECIDE – WHEN AND WITH WHOM:
I think about the real and true voice of my two year old grandson crying out for his Mommy and Daddy. Non-muted. In full blast, for full understanding.

And then I think of how we all are in our daily lives – writers, friends, speakers, grandmothers, etc….and  communicators. It’s probably best to discern for ourselves when  and with whom we keep our piano cases closed while communicating, and when we open them up to full concert recital position – or to somewhere in between with the lid half opened.

Do we know who to open up with? Who can we trust? And when we do communicate, are we honest with those people?

With our God, do we cry out in prayer so that He hears our true feelings? Or do we hold back?

All questions worth considering. All questions culled from my experience with a grand piano….and my grand son.