Thank You for Our Ancestors

My partner just recently bought an acoustic guitar. He’s kind of good at playing it, but I’m not good at playing any instrument. I think this is a blessing because I can listen to harmonious melodies live at my home.

I enjoy listening to the guitar sound produced by my partner. However, after a while, I realized that there’s something deeper that makes me able to listen to such beautiful music.

I remember the insight of interbeing by Thich Nhat Hanh. Our lives are interconnected with everything else. Without your mother, you will not be born. Without our ancestors, we would not be here at the moment.

And this insight can also be applied to physical goods. When we listen to the sound of a guitar, there were the people who make it available. The closest is the guitar seller, of course. After that, we can continue. There is the work of the distributor, the manufacturer, and the inventor of it.

I think the people who discover the idea of constructing a wood instrument with a string are geniuses. The first guitar was considered to be originated in the 15th century in Spain. How on earth they can invent a great musical instrument?

However, it’s easy for us to dismiss such inventions with the current technology. But for the people who lived in the 15th century, that’s totally groundbreaking!

We can even trace back until finding the first inventor of music. But, we know that we don’t have sufficient proof to know exactly when the first music was invented. 

But it’s not really important to know the exact history of the things in our life. What’s important is to realize there is so much work, so many people involved in it. Without our ancestors (who builds a musical instrument), we cannot listen to beautiful melodies right now. 

This might sound trivial for some people. Like, why should we bother the origin of a guitar…? But, when we look deeply, every “trivial” thing in our life has its background story. Like, your door, table, pen–that was invented by our ancestor. Or in other words, it’s constructed.

I am grateful for our ancestor who makes the first musical instrument. Similarly, you can be grateful to our ancestors for anything you have!