Stop and Take the Time to Listen to the Guitar Music

Today, I am riding my bike on College Avenue to the cafe where I'll check my email. It's getting close to dinner time, but still sunny and warm. I park and lock my bike in front of the produce store with the fruit and flowers in the front and notice there's a musician playing classical Spanish guitar on the sidewalk.

I stand there and listen to him play. I have always loved this kind of music and it hypnotizes me. The way children are always hypnotized by music. There's something essential about it for us human beings, sort of like how dogs are always transfixed by smells.

He is playing something familiar, sounds like a piece I know by a famous Spanish composer whose name I have forgotten. I stand there in the late afternoon sun while highly educated North Oakland professionals rush by, perhaps picking up takeout for their kids or going to a yoga class.

After he finishes the piece, I ask him who wrote it, and he tells me Albeniz. Yes, Albeniz, that's it! "What's his most famous piece?" I ask. He starts playing Leyenda, Albeniz's most famous piece adapted for guitar.

I will go in a few minutes, off to check my email, but not before I put a couple of dollars in his hat, and hopefully he'll continue to do this for a long time.