Finding Your Treasure

My feeling-old moment of the week: The Smothers Brothers premiered 50 years ago. Like Rocky and Bullwinkle there was humor at levels that worked for children and adults. and my mother and I both enjoyed the show. I loved that there was someone playing the string bass. (As a new string bass player it was good to have a role model. Thank goodness Tommy was the good brother.) It started my awareness about presidential politics with Pat Paulsen’s candidacy. The show introduced me to Simon and Garfunkel. And, oh my gosh, it was 50 years ago and I remember it!

Now on to today's message.

I started playing the piano when I was about eight.

I started playing the string bass at the same time.

I picked up the guitar when I was about nine. (Thank you, Simon and Garfunkel.)

I've sung since I can remember: at church, at school, in musicals, as a soloist.

I led summer-camp worship on the guitar for years until I went off to college.

I've sung regularly in church and other choirs for over 30 years.

Along the way I acquired a banjo.

And a hammered dulcimer.

And a harp.

And it turns out I've collected music for all the instruments, and all the situations in which I have ever performed. 

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

I've been working to sort out and inventory all my music. I started out with about five storage boxes of music. By the time I was done I got it down to three boxes. (Oops, just found a huge pile of miscellaneous music, so I’m into storage box number four.)

Two boxes are harp music. That makes sense, that’s where my musical heart currently is.

Then it was time to go through the rest of the music, some of which I have literally been dragging around the world for 50 years.

That was an interesting test of where my heart is.

Neil Diamond, my childhood heart-throb, went away. Well, I kept a few selected pieces.

Peter, Paul and Mary stayed. I can’t get rid of “Puff the Magic Dragon.” (Does anyone else remember this song from the Captain Kangaroo show? I was so thrilled when I found the music.)

No way was I going to get rid of my Simon and Garfunkel music. That’s been a 50-year love affair.

Remember the great musicals To Live Another Summer, To Pass Another Winter and Jacquel Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris? Yeah, no one else does either. I remember the songs I bought them for, but they are no longer treasures. Godspell, Fiddler on the Roof, Camelot? All treasures.

It was a good exercise to prepare for some of the other massive cleaning that needs to be done around my house. It was good to have to make decisions about what I treasure, and where my heart is.

Marie Kondo has created a following with her organizing philosophy. You are supposed to hold each item and determine if it gives you joy. If it does, put it away someplace where it can be seen and enjoyed. If it doesn’t, get rid of it.

It’s a process that’s a little extreme for many people. But it’s not a bad idea to examine things to determine if they still bring you joy. To determine what you treasure, and where your heart is.

 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6: 19-21)

- Ann Warner