I Must Be A Bit Daft Part One (1/2)

My Crazy Idea

My health is not the best. I’m well into my three score and ten -cataract surgery on both of my eyes, broke my hip and a pin inserted. I've had large intestine surgery to remove a cancerous growth and received a stoma - bag on my stomach. And a year later? 

Again diagnosed with cancer. This time the cancer is inoperable. There is no cure – zilch, nothing to be done. You think poor man; he's going to die. Well, that's a fact of life for us all isn’t it. One day the bells will toll for me - and you. The only question to be answered is when; how much time does God grant me? I’ve been given a time frame: max 2 years of any further living on this earth. Now the sole concern I have left is HOW I choose to live out these two years? This is where my crazy idea comes into the picture, but first let me share a little of what I'm engaged in doing at present.

I have started a project in the City of Malmö, the 3^rd largest in Sweden called “Just Brass Malmö”. It is modeled on a project created in the Southern Territory of the Salvation Army in Australia. The aim of the program is to offer positive programming to disadvantaged kids. The aim of the program is to bring disadvantaged kids together and teach them how to play brass instruments, like those used in Salvation Army brass bands for a century and a half.

Now for a slight detour.

I am at present learning, for the second time in my 70+ years, to play a brass instrument, namely the cornet. My 73 year-old kid brother, Lester, has supplied the cornet. He was an excellent cornet player and in his prime played any of the many challenging theme and variation solos placed in front of him.. He was far more skilled at playing that I could ever hope to be, but I can still learn to play well enough to play 2nd cornet in the brass band that practices every Wednesday morning at the SA Limhamn Corps in Malmö. It's know as FA-Brass Skåne. Change the letters FA and insert SA and you will know what I am referring to. My instructor is Johan, a young Christian man who has a real passion for brass banding. At present he is completing his musical degree at the Malmö Academy of Music (Musikhögskolan), where many Salvationists have studied and/or lectured. They produced a video with him as the focus discussing why kids today didn't seem to want to play brass instruments. His answer was simple. Kids can't possibly want to play an instrument they have never heard about nor seen. He's right, how in the world can anyone want to play and instrument they don't know exists! Impossible! It won't ever happen.

Detour ended and back on track -Returning to the subject; “Just Brass Malmö”.

I remember as a kid growing up in Chicago that one of the reasons I learned to play a baritone brass instrument was because my friends were playing in the our Corps Brass Band. I remember it to this day, 75 years later; it was great fun – but also a personally rich and rewarding experience. Wednesday evening was band practice night and every Sunday the band shared in the services, sometimes during Sunday Holiness Meeting (11 AM), but almost always during the Salvation Meeting (7 PM). Then there was summer camp at Camp Wonderland, a Salvation Army retreat offering hundreds of acres, a large lake, cabins and better and more enriching food than I reckon some of my bunk mates ate at home.

I don't believe the kids participating in the “Just Brass Malmö” project will understand that there are side benefits that they will be getting. Like learning to improve their reading skills and improvement to their math skills, but they will be getting that as an added bonus.

END PART ONE

Leonard Johnson

Former Officer 

USA Central - 

Retired - Residing in Sweden