My friend Kevin buys albums. I don’t mean photo albums. He is not into creative memories, as far as I know… He buys music albums. I think the last one I purchased was Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road that came out in October of 1973.  Naturally I was thrilled when eight tracks came out! I wore out my  first Boston eight track completely somewhere around 1977. When I purchased my first car, I abandoned the eight tracks and moved up to a cassette player. I listened to Billy Joel’s Stranger LP on cassette in the car until the player finally ate it up one day. My extensive collection of albums felt pangs of loneliness, as they collected dust in my room.  They had been abandoned in favor of the seemingly superior cassette tapes.

One of Kevin’s latest editions to his album collection is a Kansas LP that was released in 1975. Now that is a classic album! He is quick to point out that the music quality on the albums of that era is definitely inferior to what is being produced today. Today’s computer driven digital recording technology is truly amazing. But… he also noted that recording artists of a previous generation did not have the luxury of laying multiple tracks down in digital fashion. In other words, they had to play it right! As they recorded, the pressure to perform it well must have been unbelievable! Kansas actually released two albums in 1975. At that time, members of the group could not have possibly fathomed the complexities that twenty first century technology has given the recording industry.

As I listened to Kevin describe advanced recording methods used in the music industry today, a life lesson occurred to me. As we interact with people everyday, we don’t have the luxury of recording relational tracks separately and then assembling them into one harmonious life experience. We are forced to get it right as we go. In most cases, we only get one opportunity to “record.” We have to make the best of every encounter with each individual. Normally the opportunity to go back and record again is not availed to us.

What are the implications of that fact? We live in a world where technology allows us to tweak all kinds of things, so that raises our expectations of what life offers! But humanity is still real. We make mistakes. Relational harmony is sometimes lacking. We play the wrong notes. We say the wrong things. We fail to be where we should be when we should be there.  The end product of our interactions with each other does not always look or sound good!

I am reminded today of the importance of being patient with one another, because thus far there are no computer programs to control what people do and say. Our interpersonal flaws will always be quite evident. Patience coupled with a forgiving spirit continues to be a virtue.

Kevin was quick to point out that the Kansas album recorded in a studio in 1975 really sounded pretty good. It is far from perfect. The sound is no doubt inferior to what can be done today. But it is authentic…It seems to me that authenticity forgives a multitude of imperfections… I sold my dust laden albums at a garage sale many years ago. But I may need to pick up one or two in the near future, because they represent the imperfect, but good people I deal with everyday.