banjo and desk

This story begins when I was quite young. My brother Stephen was always the most financially astute of the five children in our family and in 1974, he decided to invest in the stock of the company my father worked for- Magma Power. Knowing the founder of the company, father took Stephen to Mr. McCabe to ask directly for the shares. Mr. McCabe was charmed by this 11 year-old businessman and promised on a handshake to sell him 100 shares at $2.00 each- the market price. However, Mr. McCabe was 85 at the time and forgot his promise. When later asked by my brother about the shares, Mr. McCabe provided the shares at $2.00 even though they had already gone up to $4.00. Fearing as always that my older brother was going to get ahead of me in some area of life, I asked if I could be part of this deal as well. I was also provided with $2.00 shares and become an investor at age 6 completely unaware of the special privilege our family connections provided and the particularly unrealistic rate of return that I immediately assumed to be the norm. I quickly came to the conclusion that stocks were a great thing, though later in life, my enthusiasm would be dampened by more realistic outcomes.

Over the next few years, the Magma Power stock continued to increase at an amazing rate. After a number of splits and mergers, at age 12 I sold out of Magma at $16 a share and invested in my new found love- the banjo. I purchased a Gospel model banjo from the Stelling Banjo Company. At the time, Stelling was located in Lemon Grove, California, just a little south of where we lived, so we visited the company and Geoff Stelling was very kind in letting me tour his operation and sat with me as I played the various banjos available. The Gospel was an instrument far beyond my skill as a musician but it was still a great joy to play on an instrument that encouraged my learning rather than hindering it.

"Bob the Bandit"

The Gospel banjo became quite a part of my life as it was played in the Emmanuel Faith youth band, on the lawn each spring at St. John's College, consoled my soul through the romantic frustrations of youth <no link provided>, played in many ETS bands for our balls and dances, went to Europe for a number of ETS student trips and even helped successfully court Miss Christy Hass. Selling out of the stock market and investing in music provided a very high rate of return. However, this lovely relationship with the Gospel banjo came to an abrupt end one quiet Sunday morning in October of 2005. Christy and I came home from church to find nothing amiss; however, we kept on having difficulty finding things. Being somewhat disorganized since we were in the midst of building our house and living in an outbuilding, we did not think much of this. Over the next few days, we kept on finding other things missing until it slowly dawned on us that we had been robbed. Most of the items that were missing were expensive, but not really of much sentimental value- camera, video camera, nail gun, etc. However, a few days later Christy put her head around the door of my office and said, "I think the banjo is gone." At that point, my philosophic detachment from material things was severely quized as my gut felt a strong tug that showed I really loved that instrument. Our souls are immaterial, but they can become attached to things as they are an expression of who we are. The things we buy and spend our time with show what are our interests and priorities are. Dante (the poet, not my son of the same name) expressed the fact well when he explained that thieves take for themselves a part of someone's soul when it is not their own. The Gospel banjo was an expression of who I was, what I loved and it had shared my life history. Madonna was being slightly hyperbolical when she called herself a "material girl", however, we are not meant to be disembodied angels living detached from material things. We live in relation to material things- for better or worse. They have been given to us to enhance life. This was not a fact that I had previously understood clearly, but having a particularly precious item stolen from you, makes it obvious.

Because it was difficult to accept the fact that some unknown individual had walked into our home and stolen our things, we gave this thief the name of "Bob the Bandit" so we could see him as a real person and pray for him. We often talked about "Bob" with our boys and used the incident to explain to them that though they live in a wonderfully peaceful and prosperous part of the world, there is evil and they must learn to resist that temptation or they too may cause grief to others.

Our house was insured by the Allied Insurance Company and they were very helpful in replacing the stolen items. However, before I could purchase another banjo a fellow teacher, Bobbie Helland, decided that the students should come together and purchase a new banjo for me. There was a wonderfully warm outpouring of support and completely surprised, I was presented with a new banjo before the 2005 Christmas Ball. The Gospel model was no longer being made by Stelling, but it has been replaced by the Master's Cross. Below is the letter I wrote to the students after that wonderful evening.

December 20, 2005

Hello ETS family,

Many thanks to all of you who came and made our Christmas Ball such a wonderful evening.

It was with great surprise and a stunned sense of gratitude that I received a new Stelling Master’s Cross banjo from my students. The banjo is the same model as the one that I got when I was 12 years old and was stolen from our house by “Bob the Bandit”; however, it sounds even better than my old banjo as the rim is made out of 100 year old wood pulled from the bottom of Lake Superior. You can read more about these special “Old Wood” rims at www.stelling.com

Mrs. Helland deserves much thanks for not only organizing the purchase but also finding the banjo at a great price from a seller who could deliver it so quickly- to get a new one from Stelling directly would have taken almost a year. Yet, wat makes the banjo so special to me is that it is such a kind expression of gratitude and affection from my students. I was certainly prepared to replace the banjo eventually, but there were so many memories associated with my old one that even though a new one would be virtually identical, it would just not mean the same thing. (Neither Theseus' ship nor the replaceable nature of husbands and children will be discussed at this point). And yet, having my new banjo be such a wonderful expression of kindness from so many people that I hold dear certainly helps it fill that banjo-shaped hole in the corner of my heart. I never won any trophies when I was young, except for the “Fisherman of the Month” trophy I won in third grade by falsifying the number of Bible verses I had memorized. However, it is difficult to imagine any greater source of “tutor glory” than to be able to say of this banjo (until death or another Bob do us part) when asked its source, “My students gave it to me”.

I should mention that our home owners' insurance has said that they will provide a partial financial settlement on the old banjo. It appears that this amount will be sufficient to have the metal portions of this banjo engraved, effectively making the banjo a “Master’s Cross Deluxe”. The engraving is hand done and the possibility of a number of our ETS mottoes being included has been very enticing. OMNIS SPIRITUS LAUDET DOMINUM and DONA NOBIS PACEM are certainly front runners, but if you have any suggestions, I would love to receive them.

I would also like to thank the Blacklocks for kindly sending me their banjo that was not getting the attention it deserved in their basement. Though this banjo will be overshadowed by his more glorious brother, he has a happy future ahead on many ETS Europe trips as well as someday in the lap of my sons as (hopefully) they learn banjo.

With love and thanks,

Mr. Hinrichs

Many of the students who contributed to the banjo fund loving signed the head and I am proud to show their names as an enduring token of affection. (see the picture at the top of this page) The new banjo was handsomely engraved by the Stelling company and continued to serve the Hinrichs' family and ETS with its wonderful tone and terrific volume. I had indeed been blessed twice with a banjo, once by the stock market (a somewhat fickle friend) and now by the kind and generous love of those whom I serve.
However... the story continues.