{"id":185,"date":"2019-05-09T03:25:16","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T03:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/?p=185"},"modified":"2020-03-23T19:44:07","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T19:44:07","slug":"homeless-mozart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/?p=185","title":{"rendered":"Homeless Mozart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were many interesting people who came into the Christian bookstore where I worked. I tried to be kind to everyone and found myself pulling stories out of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes someone came in crying. \u201cMy husband just committed adultery. I don\u2019t want to get a divorce. Is there a book that can help me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or someone came in searching. I loved helping them find their very first Bible. And there was always visitors from out of town that had interesting stories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll never forget the day after Valentine\u2019s day when a famous basketball coach came in looking for a card for his wife\u2014a day late!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d I said, \u201cThe lady employees put those cards up right after the 14th<\/sup>.\u201d Perhaps they did that because they knew that no man EVER would buy a Valentine\u2019s Day card after Valentine\u2019s day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nfound a generic card, paid for it in cash, and rushed out.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As usual, some of the most memorable people were the ones that were unusual. One homeless man used to come in and ask to play the piano. He played very loud and I had to ask him to stop playing as I was afraid that he would break the instrument. I remember one day he came in dressed only in a dirty white t-shirt one size too small and white cut off sweat pants. He had flip-flops on his white sock feet. He told me that the place he was staying finally put in a toilet. He was so happy that when he asked to play the piano, I let him. Of course, I told him that he needed to play softly because there were students studying in the coffee shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nunlocked the grand piano and he sat down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Classical music is my go to music. Tchaikovsky is my favorite. Swan Lake is my favorite music off all time. When he began to play Mozart, I stood behind him quite impressed. Then he suddenly stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo.\nThat\u2019s not right,\u201d he said, shaking his head back and forth, while he scratched\nhis behind. After a loud \u201cHumph,\u201d he began the same symphony again\u2026Symphony No.\n40 in g minor\u2026 IN A DIFFERENT KEY!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE:\nI really don\u2019t know the name of the music. I just googled Mozart and chose one\nof his most recognizable masterpieces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you hear me? He played it again in a different Key. Then he abruptly stopped in the middle and said, \u201cThat\u2019s wrong.\u201d He squeezed his eyes shut for what seemed the longest time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I held my breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\nshould be like this,\u201d he declared, and played the piece in the same key,\nhowever different in several places. As I watched and listened, I realized that\nas unbelievable as it seemed, he was rewriting Mozart! When he finished, there\nwere several students in the coffee shop who applauded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nthe concert he stood, and I locked the piano once again.  We both walked together to the counter where\nI stood behind the cash register.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out\nof breath he leaned in and said, \u201cDid you know that the aliens from Saturn sent\nme a message last week?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\ndo tell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nmoved his hand over the other in a broad circle. \u201cY\u2019know the rings are like a\nrecord.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUn\nhuh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd\nNASA sent up the spaceship Cassini, right?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nnodded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell,\nit glanced along the rings like a needle on a record\u2026and they sent me a\nmessage!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now\nyou know what I was thinking. The same thing you are thinking. So, I whispered to\nhim, \u201cWhat. Did. They. Say?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nleaned in closely and whispered back, \u201cI. Can\u2019t. Tell. You.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well,\nof course, it was a message to him. Not a message to the world. We said\ngoodbyes and before he left, he turned around and said to me, \u201cYou are only the\ntwenty-third person I have ever told about this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nhe left, I changed the store\u2019s overhead music to \u201cMozart for Learning.\u201d And\u2026 I\nlistened for a message from Saturn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were many interesting people who came into the Christian bookstore where I worked. I tried to be kind to everyone and found myself pulling stories out of them. Sometimes someone came in crying. \u201cMy husband just committed adultery. I don\u2019t want to get a divorce. Is there a book that can help me?\u201d Or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271,"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions\/271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}