Band Parents and the Laws of Physics....

I can’t help but wonder… Did Sir Isaac Newton know a band parent?

Most of us are familiar with Newton’s famous law that an object in motion tends to stay in motion. Well, that’s certainly a way of life for band parents, especially our chaperone friends.  These part-time nurses, often-time drill sergeants, occasional seamstresses, periodic counselors, impromptu tour guides and full-time boosters of kids and music are performing a yeoman’s service - honest, hard work – here on the Marching Barbs’ Epic Ireland Adventure. And, they paid for the honor to do so. They have no room to contemplate Newton’s concept of inertia. There simply is no time to for them to pause.

Be sure to make the time to thank them for their service when they return.

Then, again, perhaps Newton didn’t know any Band Parents at all.

After all, that famous first law says the path of motion is usually fairly straight forward, with progression more or less at a constant speed. Neither a simple path nor a measured cadence are luxuries that most band parents can afford. 

Band parents plan and re-plan. They zig. They zag. Band Parents charge ahead when needed or attempt to calm the waters when required. They watch. They jump in. They mind the gap. They fill the needs, whatever ever ones they see. They cheer. They support.

But…. What they don’t do?

They. Don’t. Ever. Stop.

There is nothing in Newton’s First Law of Motion that really hints at why band parents don’t stop.

But …. If you don’t know, I’ll share a secret.  For any of them like me, it’s simply because they can’t. 

A place to go….

A need to address…

A schedule to keep….

A question to answer.

A photograph to take. 

There’s a reason I am always taking photos and am never in them. If I stop, you’ll see the emotion I can barely keep contained. 

That emotion is there, just below the surface, ready to erupt, usually when I least want it to. 

I can’t contain it when it’s wheels up at O’hare. It leaks out from the corner of my eyes as the Irish countryside first becomes visible out the airplane’s window. It constricts my throat as 100 green-clad children on the cusp of adulthood begin to form a concert arc in a setting most never imagined playing in front of the first time they picked up an instrument.  It snatches my breath as the drum major makes the call and that first note rends the air.

Barb Pride.  Band mom emotions.

Pausing now is not an option.