Bored between football and hockey late this afternoon, my surfing led me to a documentary mid-air. It being about a piano, I paused and didn’t move the channel.

Piano to Zanskar is an award-winning British documentary film which tells the story of Desmond O’Keeffe, also known as Mr Gentle, a 65-year old piano tuner who embarks on an impossible mission.

Facing his future in retirement, “sitting in deck chairs and eating lemon drizzle cake”, Desmond decides instead to take on the most challenging and perilous delivery of his four decade career: transporting a 100 year-old, 80 kilo, Broadwood and Sons upright piano, from bustling London to the remote heart of the Indian Himalayas. 

Setting off from his busy workshop in Camden Town, and enlisting the help of two young and eager apprentices, Desmond’s ambitious destination is a primary school in Lingshed, Zanskar. At 14,000 feet above sea level, it is one of the most isolated settlements in the world. 

At 56 years of age, I continue to receive lessons on humility; they come faster and deeper. Watching this film, I faced several realities of extraordinary privilege my life has afforded that I must stop taking for granted.

• Grew up in a home with a piano. (As of 2015, one in 3,788 U.S. families owned a piano. That statistic for the world isn’t known.)
• Received piano lessons at various levels.
• Earned a degree in music education.
• Taught piano for seven years.
• Started a piano competition in the early 90’s, now known as The Greater Jacksonville Federation Piano Competition, that continues today.
• Have played for thousands of church worshippers in America, Belarus, and Jordan.

God has used pianos to heal me, to touch others, and to lift his name high.

For His sake, may the humility lessons continue.