—by Cheryl Mandala

Anyone fortunate enough to engage in creative endeavors expects the occasional criticism and, balancing that out, sometimes praise from a most unexpected source. 

Recently a plumber was working on a bathroom repair in my condo just down the hall from the living room where I practice. My harp teacher, Stephen Hartman, and I do a lot of duet work. That morning I was trying to make sense of a particularly difficult passage in a duet version of “Clair de Lune” he arranged for me to play with another of his adult students. The arrangement, with its many pedal changes, is quite challenging. 

The plumber heard every note that morning, the good ones and the clunkers. When he finished the job, he told me he’d enjoyed hearing me play as he worked, adding that he was seldom serenaded while repairing a toilet.

The following week when he returned to make some adjustments, I was practicing the same “Clair de Lune” passage. After he finished, he stopped on his way out the door and told me, “That sounds a lot better than when I was here last time.”

I laughed and thanked him, and he went on his way to the next leak or drip or clog or whatever other plumbing problem would fill his day. Although I’d politely thanked him, what I really thought was, “Oh, great. Now everybody’s a critic.”

Let’s face it, a musician or a writer or an artist expects criticism or unsolicited opinions on what you’ve created or written or played or painted or stitched. Everybody has an opinion because each person who sees or hears what we do reacts to it differently. But never did I expect to hear an opinion, especially praise, from my favorite plumber.

Fast forward six months: another plumbing issue arises—same bathroom, same plumber, and I’m still struggling with the same duet. Progress, what little there is, seems glacial at best.

I was practicing when he arrived. He knocked on the door, I called for him to come in, while I continued practicing. As he walked through the foyer into the living room, he said to me with a perfectly straight face, “Oh, is that what you were playing the last time I was here?”

“Yes.”

He’s due back later today, hopefully to do the last repair that particular bathroom will require for a while. I think I will give us both a break and play something else when he’s here. The forecast is for 113 degrees in Phoenix today. Maybe it’s time to break out the Christmas music!