should have been a rock star - naked truth

Rock and roll naked in the backyard

We have a good friend, Susan, who at one time taught at Cascia Hall with my wife. Susan taught French, but always had the dream to make a living as a musician. In fact, at one point, Susan spent time in a French Buddhist monastery, devoting her time to mastering her guitar.
I would always describe Susan as a free spirit. In fact, the first time I heard of her, Ashley called me from work and told me there was a new teacher who looked like Aphrodite. This was Susan, who won a place in Ashley’s heart by asking her, in the hallway, “Where is a place to shit around here?”
Susan and Ash became fast friends. They both shared a love for the edgy and neither believed that there were any taboo topics of conversation.
Susan soon began to get gigs at local restaurants, as a solo musician and her guitar. She played a collection of folky covers, originals and even a few tunes sung in French. We followed her to a few of the places to eat, drink a little wine and listen to Susan play.
Susan was determined to get her music heard, and set up opportunities to play for crowds, including a couple of poetry-music shows at small local venues. Ashley acted as the feature poet at one such outing, even singing a duet with Susan on a poem Ash had written and Susan put to music. It was called “Saturn returns.” I thought it was pretty cool. Ash’s poetry was great and Susan sounded terrific. Susan evne wrote and performed an instrumental called “Grandma’s China” based on a set of China we all ate on at our house. It had belonged to Ash’s grandma and apparently translated into a beautiful musical for Susan. She even performed it at another friend’s wedding.
Susan released a CD of her music. It was pretty good. Her musical roots stretched even further as she did vocals for a jazz band, played an d sang with a rock group, and generally involved herself in a variety of projects. Susan decided to completely devote herself to her music and left teaching for the beautiful but unsteady world of music.

After Susan recorded her second CD, she needed a cover picture. She called Ash and they met at our house for a picture. Susan brought a waterproof camera with the intention of taking underwater photos for the wispy and ethereal effect of the water. The two of them shared a bottle of wine and had started on the second when Susan ditched her clothes and climbed into the pool naked for the photo shoot. Susan had never been one for the conventional, and at our house that was OK> We are pretty laid back, open to almost any situation.
The odd part of this story is this…. When they had finished the photos, as Susan climbed out of the pool naked, was the moment my dear Mom chose to pay a visit to the house. She walked into the backyard to catch full view of the naked Susan in our back yard. I’m in doubt that my Mom’s many years as the song leader at the small Kiefer Baptist church ever really prepared her form this musical experience.
Apparently she survived the shock as did the photos. The cover of Susan;’s CD looks great. Ash got her second credits on a CD cover and Susan continues to play across Oklahoma and Texas. She has a dedicated group of followers and today still continues to be the free spirit that you might expect any Aphrodite to be.
My wife still continues to be my favorite poet and a magician with words.
Me, I still paly air guitar and scream out the lyrics to AC/DC as I drive down the road. At the age of 54, other drivers stare, especially since with no air conditioning in my 20 year old Honda, the windows are down, allowing the rest of the world to be part of my performance too.
And who cares? After all, we all need to stand naked in front of others from time to time.