Recently after a swim I was sitting in a community hot tub, listening to a group of educators and parents having a discussion about trends in education. One woman, a local professor, talked about a recent resurgence in interest regarding textile arts and sculpture. She said it’s becoming apparent that the digital natives, the kids who in many cases had an iPad in their hands before they learned to write, have missed much of the hands on learning previous generations had, and know intuitively that they need something more. They feel a deep hunger to use their hands to change something in their world, to make something that wasn’t there, to feel it coming into being. Our hands are such amazing tools – there is an instinct to use them and explore their capacities which can’t just be extinguished in a generation or two. It’s too much a part of who we are.

A long time ago I remember hearing a Native American elder saying that in his opinion, the inability to regularly touch bare feet to bare earth was one of the greatest losses modern humans had endured. Walking around on paved surfaces and shoes that almost totally remove the sensations involved in walking on the ground, we are literally out of touch with the Earth we live on. We don’t really understand in an embodied way how we interact with this Earth or how it holds us. I don’t get off the pavement much myself but I wear sandals very nearly every day, and I definitely feel better when I’m shoeless for a while on a beach or a pool deck. With our hands being analogous to our feet, I’d say this is another good indication that we may benefit greatly from analog, manual activity.

This is yet another great reason to play the guitar. If fidget spinners and bubble poppers help you get your tactile stimulation I’ve got no problem with it…*and*, if you’re going to deliberately attend to sensations, you also have the option, at least sometimes, to explore music making. A guitar is an amazing sensory toy…and approaching it that way can be a great replacement for the assumption that it’s always got to be a big, serious undertaking. We play the guitar, we don’t work it. It’s there to enjoy. Life is too brief and wonderful not to celebrate in song…and sometimes just joyful noise as we learn and play.

If you’d like some helpful guidance learning how to enjoy the journey of playing guitar, contact me! I teach in person in Santa Cruz, California, and lessons are also available online.