Opportunity and when to grab it

Opportunity, it is said, knocks only once while temptation leans on the doorbell. I am reminded of that as I throw open the window this wonderfully sunny morning after days of incessant rain and floods further upstate. The welcome sunshine provides an opportunity to not only let the sunbeams in to corners that have been suffocatingly gloomy the last days but also to lend cheer to the room.

Straight after this, I think I will put the still-damp clothes out to dry that have been hanging limply from a clothes horse. The open window lets in the world outside. Five baby mynahs are pattering around on the tin roof of the neighbour’s shed, too caught up with the bright day to worry about hunting down worms. It’s a good day for the worm, I imagine. At least until hunger strikes the mynah belly.

Into the room also come the sounds of music — of an acoustic guitar that very apparently is enjoying the sensation of being strummed for it is in turn putting out a wide array of energising musical notes accompanied, underpinned by a familiar voice.

It is Rodney, the neighbour’s son, late teens. The voice has a delicacy of tone — a fragility that from time to time momentarily cracks before re-mending and this rather than being a flaw is more a uniqueness. Rodney is singing an unplugged version of Trembling Hands, the Temper Trap hit. ‘So throw me a line/somebody out there help me/I’m on my own/I’m on my own….’ he sings.

Rodney is indeed alone, ironically. It’s a school day. His peers are “among their books” or at least trying their best to stay connected to the complexities of square roots and triangulations, isobars and isotopes, sheep farms and sheep stations. And yet, in a sense, Rodney is not alone. Seated on his front porch, sheltered from the rain and the sun, he and his guitar are in the constant company of dozens of singers through their songs ... which of course he shares generously with us, the neighbours.

I’m not sure if everyone listening is into Rodney’s music, but his choice of songs certainly works for me. One time, passing his front yard, I complimented him and he asked in return: “Do you have a cigarette to spare, mate?” Which I didn’t, of course, and which if I did possess I’d have lied about blatantly saying something light-heartedly serious like: “Save those 16-year-old lungs mate, there’re years of entertainment in them.”

Rodney’s dad is a draughtsman with an engineering firm. A simple down-to-earth person, he says: “A boy’s got to do what a boy’s got to do. Right now, Rodney wants to be the next big thing in Australian music. As his dad, I’ve got to support that, even if it means his attendance is dropping in school and he may miss a year or even drop out.”

In a further twist of irony that appears lost on him, Rodney has moved on — reverse-chronologically — from Temper Trap to Crosby, Stills & Nash, singing Teach Your Children!

Rodney’s a very good guitarist there’s no denying. He puts a completely different spin on the CSN version, changing up the strumming. There’s also no denying his abundant talent. Sadly as they say with skills like music and writing, it’s not only about the skill, it’s more to do with the time and place and a great slice of luck. All three need to come together. That’s why a decent basic education is a useful Plan B and you can’t fault parents for putting that argument forward. In life, there needs to be something to fall back on — an escape route into the boring routine-driven urban jungle — when the main plan — to set a blazing new trail — goes awry. One has to utilise other opportunities that are at hand. For as someone said, opportunities are never lost; someone will take those you miss.

Kevin Martin is a journalist based in Sydney, Australia.