Holden, Me And Three Good Things

"Bad  things come in three."

At the risk of alienating pessimists, my life experience routinely turns the superstition above on its head. Take yesterday, for example.

The first two good things took place during the second day of my current Adult Ed class. First, while playing Wynton Marsalis' majestic rendition of Ray Noble's "The Very Thought of You", I had four minutes of musical communion with about 40 adults, all of whom respected my request not to sing along. The room remained so silent, time felt suspended. Then a few minutes later I improvised my way through George Gershwin's "Summertime" to illustrate a teaching point about how a timeless song makes it simple for a non-singing musician to get inside the essence of a lyric using just their instrument. My playing made me as happy as Marsalis' trumpet had moments before.

#3: A short time later my wife and I spent over two hours listening to thirteen uniformly excellent musicians support Lyle Lovett at the Count Basie Theater. It's no exaggeration to say Lovett's concert transported me. Driving home, I kept recalling that passage from "Catcher In The Rye" when Holden Caulfield talks about how the world is conspiring to make him happy - that was my Tuesday.

What were the last three good things that hit you like my three hit me?