Superseded.

Superseded.

I sing in my church choir.  When you are done laughing, you may continue....

Our director is a great guy, very nice, enthusiastic, sincere about his faith, and picks good music, though we repeat some of his favorites too often.  OK, no big deal.  He's a volunteer, we aren't that good, and few people put in the time and the energy, so I'm grateful he's doing it.  However, he's going to miss a Sunday during December so our pianist will conduct while the old pianist plays. 

He stood up and started and within 30 seconds I remembered, so THIS is what a real conductor is like.  He's smart and funny and knows his music, and can sing more than just his part, and has ideas on phrasing an dynamics and actually teaches you to be a better singer.  I get it now.  The old guy has just been superseded in a major way. 

A better, smarter, faster, leaner, younger, harder, longer, thicker, curvier, skinnier, older, younger... whatever, has just entered the building you you are fucked.  Superseded.  No longer required.  Obsolete.

Sure, the old guy can do in a pinch, and if new guy's not around he'll be just fine and after a while you'll forget about the new guy, but you'll always know that you sang better when new guy was around.  OK, now I know this is sounding a bit homoerotic, but both conductors are men, and I'm a men, and so, you know, the metaphor takes on a life of it's own.

But we all fear that moment, that time when we are no longer needed, we've been surpased, or we've dropped back in the pack to the land of pleasant memories and "Oh yea, I remember you."

This really isn't a sad post, it's just that I've been thinking as I discuss on-line relationships and romantic attachments and the like.  We who live on-line are always 2nd to real-world relationships, or we aren't as witty as the next guy.  And I do the same at times.  Like a kid in a candy store, I'm looking out for the next sweet treat, until it no longer tastes good, or the sweet no longer wants to be eaten.  (I crack myself up with such bad puns).

It's not even a bad thing all the time.  We grow, we learn, we move on, we substitute experience for enthusiasm and we relax anr realize that, "Yes, I know what I'm doing, now leave me alone."