lesson is more! (some jokes and a story)

about lessons!

dear friends, family, fans, fellow folks, friends, and more friends,

i’m grateful that you’re here.
thank you for being who and where you are (you and here)!
and now for a few silly jokes PLUS a story that i’ve shared here previously only for paying subscribers but now is free for all! the jokes and the story are all about LESSONS. get ready to LEARN what they are!

A) is for A movie:

thinking about writing a movie where a sports team isn't good at first but then they somehow either win or maybe don't but either way they learn an important lesson.

(no one’s done a movie like this before yet, right?)

B) is for Bunnies which are like hares:

"i've been giving it a lot of thought, and it seems to me that sometimes getting enough rest is more important than winning a silly race"

-- post-race press conference with the hare who has learned a valuable lesson sincerely or hired a great PR team insincerely

(we don’t ever really find out about the sleep habits of the tortoise, do we?)

C) is for Comedy:

comedians are the ultimate rebels, the very essence of our existence pushing back against the first lesson our parents taught us: "don't talk to strangers."

(thanks for reading this, friends! AND STRANGERS!)

now, the story (which is actually a story about a story PLUS a story about me):

isaac bashevis singer wrote a story once about a fool who went to a restaurant very hungry, and kept ordering things and ordering things because he wasn't full yet, wasn't full yet, and finally after ordering maybe almost everything on the menu, they brought him a cookie, and he ate the cookie, and was full, and he said something like "if only we had known it was the cookie that would make me be full, i would have ordered that first."

what a fool that guy was!

and now, the me of it all:

i grew up learning the violin from age 4. i didn't love it. i didn't like practicing, but it was mandatory. my mother loved music. music was, in ways, a religion to her. i had to go to music classes and lessons the way some kids had to go to sunday school or synagogue or wherever you might have had to go. and she wanted me to practice outside of class as well. so i did. because it was expected of me. for years. i learned. and learned. lessons. classes. theory. practice. then, when i was fifteen, i picked up a guitar for the first time, and i was able to play, easily. i taught myself. songs i knew. songs i created. i practiced for hours and hours but didn't conceive of it as practice, as work. because it was joy. play. pleasure. beauty. and all that was only made possible because of all the violin work that had preceded it. but at the time, when that guitar joy washed over me, i remember thinking "man, if only i had started playing the guitar back when i was 4 instead of the violin, imagine how much Better i'd be, imagine how many more years of joy i could have had with the guitar." if i’d only ordered that guitar cookie immediately.

what a fool THIS guy was!
and maybe still is!
thanks for reading.

and that’s all from me for today! now, some questions for YOU:

1) how are you doing? how are you feeling? what is new and good?
2) do you get enough rest, like the hare in that fable did?
3) do you talk to strangers?
4) did you have any childhood experiences that you see differently as an adult?
5) how are you doing NOW?

and that’s all for today! bonus: here are some places i’m performing soon!

— Minneapolis, MN TONIGHT through January 13
— Des Moines, IA on January 20
— Davenport, IA on January 21
— Ogden, UT on January 26-27
— Boise, ID on January 28
— Cohoes, NY on February 2
— Bethlehem, PA on March 2
— Milwaukee, WI on March 15-16

and finally, here’s a nice photo that my friend troy conrad took around this time of year some years ago at a show called “fifty first jokes” that happens in NYC and LA and other cities too probably. this is me telling my first joke of some year! and it’s a real nice pic!

much love all!
thank you for being here and receiving!
you are nice!