There's really no other place like it. Today I was awoken by my teacher calling me. At 9:30 am. On a Sunday. I was not coherent but what I managed to glean from him is that he wanted me to sub for him at a gig. I didn't know what it was but he told me to dress nice (in articles of clothing I don't own) and meet him at the Green Mortuary in North Beach. So, after a fiasco of Public transportation and retail merchandise, I show up slightly on time to see them playing a funeral procession at a wake. Wow, that's cool I guess. If only it wasn't raining...Anyways, we end up playing for about 4 hours, and I get a tip in a little red envelope. The whole thing was so surreal, wandering through china town playing brass band music...
That little red envelope. I happened on something profound, I guess, because of that envelope. This older trumpet player told me:
"Hey, I'll give you a dime for that envelope"
joking because the envelope presumably has something of higher value in it. To which I responded:
"Okay, it's just an envelope"
kind of joking that I would just hand him the envelope but keep what's inside. Which actually made me think:
Sometimes, we confuse the actual contents of the vessel for the vessel itself.
hmmmm. Me being a smartass has provided a nice metaphor for not taking things at face value. And how we are more than the sum of our parts. And things. Interesting....
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