The dusty guitar in the corner

At one time in my life I told myself I was going to learn how to play the guitar. I was all fired up about the idea after I got an acoustic Alvarez guitar — with that classic light-colored wood look on the outside — for Christmas three years ago.
For about a month, I would pick up the guitar pick when I had some free time and strum whatever came to mind. I taught myself how to play the Star Spangled Banner, the beginning to the song “Unforgiven” by Metallica and the intros to a few AC/DC songs.
Since then, the Alvarez has stood in the corner of my living room, collecting more dust than the book shelf does on which the guitar rests upon.
Picking up the guitar isn’t my only failed attempt at expanding my horizons. There’s also that set of roller skates in the back shed that I wore once, the countless non-fiction books I swore I’d read to enlighten myself — only to put them on the shelf and never touch again, and the tennis racquet on the porch that I only recently picked up again. And that’s only naming the things I can think of. Who knows what other projects I tried taking on and have forgotten about.
The kicker with all these bright ideas of mine is, well, they’re not easy things to do. Every time I try to read those non-fiction books on anything from pre-Soviet Russian history to the current Iraq war, I fall asleep within 20 pages. The roller skates force me to use muscles I haven’t used in a long time, plus the roads are so rough around my apartment that I would be better off just running anyway.
Tennis — don’t get me started on that sport. Why is it, if I try to rocket a tennis ball across the net that I end up smacking the tennis ball into the net, but if I lob it over gently just to get the ball over, I get the ball rocketed back at my feet. There’s no in between!
It’s easy in life to fall into a rut and become complacent with how things are. With the long drives to work, long hours at work or everything else, the last thing many of us want to do is pick up a new hobby or learn a new trait.
The thing is, it’s good for us to challenge ourselves every once in a while. Our minds are always looking for something new to dig into, whether it’s a new sport, new book or new hobby.
At least that’s what I told myself when I picked up the guitar the other day and tried to re-tune the guitar and start again with my lessons. Halfway into tuning the B string, however, I turned the tuning key too far and broke the string. Now the guitar is back in its customary place along the wall, this time with a string dangling down from its neck on to the floor.
Maybe it’s a sign the guitar isn’t for me. I wonder what’ll happen when I pick up that Russian history book.