Red and Blue Patch

Heather and I got to ride the FrontRunner train to Provo and back several times last week. We had a marvelous time. It’s a much more picturesque trip than on the freeway, and not taking the car meant we could read, listen to music, watch a video or chat with the other passengers. On one of those trips we met a young waiter with a ukulele. He said he’d spent three months learning to play, and he was taking it to work to impress his customers. Two young women seated beside us asked for a demonstration, and he cheerfully obliged. First, he put on a pair of headphones. “Because I play by ear,” he said. Then he proceeded to sing an ABBA song while strumming his four open strings. I thought of showing him the three chords necessary to actually play that song, but I stopped myself. Learning is impossible when you already know everything.