The Eagle And The Hawk

For Christmas NYDD got me an MP3 player. I like having noise all the time. Music, TV, radio, anything that gives background sound. When I used to clean the hallways and lobby of our building I didn’t like doing it because it was so quiet. Around Christmas I finally realized it wasn’t the actual work I didn’t like. It was doing the work in silence. So NYDD gave me an MP3 player for Christmas and now jobs like that are much more doable.

Anyway,

I was cleaning the building the other day, listening to my music, and a song came up that I like a lot. It’s a John Denver song called “The Eagle and The Hawk.” I put it on repeat and listened to it over and over again almost the whole time I was cleaning. I really like it. It reminds me of my brother, Fuffy. When he was a senior in HS he found the song and played it a lot. That year he also got his Eagle Scout Award or whatever it’s called. NYDD and I went to his Eagle court of honor where he and another guy from my home ward were receiving it.  A close friend of our family is a falconer and he did a cool presentation with hawks and falcons.  Then my dad and the other boys dad performed a song for them.  My dad played the piano and the other dad played the guitar.  They did an arrangement of “The Eagle and the Hawk” and “Wind Beneath My Wings.”  It was really touching and I cried.  Fuffy was close to graduating high school and leaving on a mission and I thought the song was perfect.  It was like my dad’s way of tell Fuffy he loved him, was proud of him, and only wanted the best for him.  Now, every time I listen to the song, my memories of that day come flooding back.  My dad sitting at the piano, my brother, in his scout uniform sitting in the front, the dim, warm light, and all of it a little blurred by tears.