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Writing a recent post about taking our daughters to the Dan Zanes and Friends show the other day reminded me of something ...

Last October, we took a trip to San Diego so we could go to Sea World.  The night before we ventured into the park, Djuna, while we were waiting for our table at a restaurant, bumped into a poorly-lit railing that was sticking out too far from the wall.  She cut her forehead, a minor injury in the scheme of things, but it was enough for us to get it checked out at the hospital.

The cut only needed one of those Derma-bonds, thank goodness.  While we were waiting for the doctor to apply the adhesive (Dwayne was with Dinah out in the emergency room lobby), Djuna asked me to sing to her.  One of the songs she requested was Catch That Train (the title song from Dan Zanes' Grammy Award-winning CD of the same name).  Even though I know all the words when the CD is on in the car, I could only sing the first couple of lines.  I was so bummed that I couldn't remember it all for her.

Later, when we climbed back into the car to head back to our hotel, Djuna, just before dropping off into the sleep of the fatigued, sang the whole first verse on her own, the little dickens.  I was amazed.

Today, we have so many digital ways to record and store information, stories and photos, but when I had to rely on my own memory, when my little girl wanted a song in the ER, I came up short.  But she remembered!

When I was in elementary school, I learned to play the violin (sort of).  My teacher once asked our class to each memorize a song and to play it for her, alone.  I asked her why we had to do that when we always used sheet music for our orchestra playing.  She told me that it's nice to be able to play something from memory when guests are over and ask to hear a song.

After that experience in the ER, I finally understood what my violin teacher was trying to teach us all those years ago.  She was trying to keep the flames of the community campfire alive.  You know, that campfire.  The one we all sit around and share stories and songs, orally and from memory, the same way great literature like The Odyssey was handed down.  Or great songs like Catch That Train.