My friend Brain Gerrity is a musician. I know this not because of his ability to read or play music, but because of he has no money. Nothing marks a musician quite like poverty. There is an inverse relationship between the quality of music vs.- the income of the musician. The poorer the musician the better the music. Brain is a really good musician.
In fact, he borders on genius. Sometimes I worry that Brain may "make it" and become a wealthy person and his music would suffer. The less the musician suffers the more his music does. Being a musician can be tough. It's true of hunters too. The bigger the deer the less of a deer hunter the person is. This may sound backwards to you, but then you have to realize that I have never shot a big deer and I am the one writing this story, so there.

Brian and I play cribbage together. I taught him how to play and he taught me how to lose. It was a bad deal. I should have taught him how to play worse. I of course am a good loser. I hardly ever throw the cribbage board anymore except when he skunks me. When I win I am very reserved and hardly make a fuss of it for more than ten minutes. Brian told me if we were part of a Sioux tribe he would call me "Dances when Wins". That goes to show you how bad of a sense of humor Brian has. But a sense of humor is like money when it comes to musicians. Less is more.

Sometimes Brian plays a show at a local bar. I go there to see him play and because they serve alcohol. It's part of my two-step program. I watch Brian and drink beer. Most alcoholics need twelve steps but I only need two.

I used to be a musician but then I met a beautiful woman and got married. Now I have a great wife and a wonderful daughter. I stopped suffering so much and the music left me.
One day it was there and the next it was gone. It's scary being happy.

Brian came over the other day and played a few songs for me. When He finished I patted him on the back.
"What's that for?" he asked.
"I had no idea you were suffering so much." I said.
"Yeah, it's been bad." He said. "The last piece I was playing you would have been even better, but I got a raise at work this morning." He continued.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Brian" I told him.

Strangely, Brian is a good fisherman. By this I mean he never catches more fish than he should, which is to say more than me. I have complimented him on his sportsmanship. It's hard not to catch more fish than me. I think sometimes he sneaks in more fish than I but he never mentions it to our friends so I let him keep on fishing.

My Uncle Dave catches more and bigger fish than me. Uncle Dave is a big time attorney. He has a cabin on the Pine River, two cars and three secretaries. But then Uncle Dave is a poor musician. I only mention him to show what a lot of money can do to you. Right, it makes you happy. Brian and I understand this so we keep on being poor. It's a matter of choice. He's a musician and I'm a writer. Being poor keeps us good at what we do. If we keep on being poor we might end up being rich someday.
I think I'll go call Brian right now, I feel like playing some cribbage. Maybe I can beat him so bad he'll write another good song. But hey, that's what friends are for.

Learn more about this author, Sean Maitner.
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