Mom and Dad only give retreats togeather in New York. The rest of the places they go require them to spend too much time directly in one another's company so they each have doubles, so that one of them is there and the other is a pet monkey. The first time I went to see them Dad was there and mom was the monkey. He said Mom would be mad she didnt get to be the first one to see me in person so if I wanted our next meeting not to be me talking to a boney pile of tiger poop, I needed to come back two more times before I let myself get fed up with these people. He asked me what I knew about our family and I told him I had heard that we were good musicians and had a tradition of instruction in the matter, but I was worried about what it was because I had also read about the Indian process of training musicians and all maner of performers and he said he thought that method was inferior, and I believed him because Gramps showed me every indication he believed the same. But he also said our method works because we live a long time, and if shorter lived musicians tried our method they would never learn, so they opt for the method that involves destroying the tiny muscles that we use to beat them in the battle of the bands, and that they prefer a beating that makes them learn better than a long life of many restrictions.
He also told me and gramps and tried to tell me this but I didnt understand him, that we usually live places where having musical instruments is not socially acceptable and that many of our family had never held an instrument until the night of their first performance, then their teacher would tell them to do whatever they did to learn and practice but on the instrument and they would play pretty well, though they would improve from more exposure to real instruments. He didnt tell me what these things were in his day, since it wasnt neccessary for me to learn that way precisely and he might need to do those things again. Also not all the things he tells people to do that dont make immediate sense involve learning to play music, so if someone got to nosey and judgemental they might fail to learn to dodge a yetti.
