of pinecones and play

Today a student of mine and I were playing the pinecone game. I say "the pinecone game" but really that's not a helpful designation, because at any moment anything at all could become the pinecone game, and it could never be the same twice. It happened because we had been playing the bead game last week, but then I went and took home the beads (they were, it must be said, tiny, and in great danger of being lost). And there the pinecones were.

There they always are, because I pick them up on the way to work. I try to pass them by; sometimes I succeed. But invariably, after a few weeks of this, walking by and ignoring them, or telling them yes, I see you, yes you are beautiful but I have so many of you already!…I pick another one up and it's just so beautiful I have to take it with me.

So there is a pile of pinecones in my studio. Which is a good thing, because it means we can always play the pinecone game!

Anyway my student asked me, as we put them away, "do you ever wash your pinecones?"
"No, I've never even thought of washing them. Are they dirty?"
"Well if you haven't washed them, they must be dirty."

Can one wash pinecones? Should one wash pinecones?

Well, the pinecone game was fun. That and the fact that the world threw a microwave in my path right when I needed one, and that I got to sit in (stand in, really) on a few songs with some guitar-playing dudes at the market today ("What have you got in there?" "A viola." "Want to play? Open that case up, get it out!")…all these things, and more, make me a happy blogger tonight. 

So open that case up, whatever it is, get it out, and play!