Agreeing to disagree

I could sit in the apartment in a ratty pair of shorts, slumped on the couch watching bad television.

I could listen to what I wanted, musically speaking.

I could travel to friends' homes on weekends for all-night rants.

Wow, how life has changed.

Agreeing to disagree is something I've not had to deal with before. But I'm starting to like it.

Take, for example, the world of music.

For as long as I can remember, I've performed in front of people. When I was a child, I would grab an old beat-up guitar my grandfather gave me and I would run around the house, strumming the strings while singing some silly song. (More than likely, it was KC and the Sunshine Band -- once again, giving away my age).

When I turned 13, I wrote my first song.

I have been in and out of bands since I was 15. All the friends I met in those bands shared music with one another.

Including me.

I still play in a band and I still share music with my cohorts. Specifically, I'm always dropping off something new I have for my drummer, hoping he'll like it just as much as I do. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't.

But now, I'm also trying to share music with my fiance.

Through those years of sharing music back and forth with band members, I found several artists I still listen to.

But now, I share a home with someone and sharing music with that someone isn't all that easy.

My fiance has recently taken up a liking for country (using the term loosely) music.

In reality, it's pop music.

With an exception. Some of it still has that twang country music has long been known for.

Some of it, on the other hand, is twangless. It really does sound like pop music.

Some of it, I like. Some of it, I can't stand.

The music I listen to, on the other hand, is a different story.

My fiance is not necessarily a fan of quite a lot of the stuff I listen to, which I have become accustomed to. Most of friends and bandmates -- for quite some time -- didn't like a lot of the stuff I listened to. Past and present included.

That's always been OK with me. I have always tried to convert them anyway. Surely they see what I see in the songs, don't they?

Not necessarily.

Oh well. A person can try, right?

We're agreeing to disagree. Lesson 1 learned.

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