Way back when, when I was first so far away from home, I found myself with my first commute by car to work. It was the gateway to listening to NPR . And one day, inevitably, I heard a filler piece, a fairly sycophantic interview with a known musician, a pianist, whose name escapes me, but not one of the very bigs. Someone a piano maven circa 1999 would have perhaps known but not a Keith Jarrett or even a Hank Jones. I got a bit of a new age hit off him, which soured me.

But that’s not the point. He was a talented and respected pianist who was returning to his career after a long hiatus caused by some sort of trauma–I tuned in too late to hear what the event or disease was.

When I tuned in, he’d begun describing his agonizing return to serious practice. Whatever the trauma had been, it had put him back to “zero.” I have heard this benchmark described before–Dylan, after his motorcycle accident, had to relearn guitar “from zero.” Clapton, it was rumored, had the same challenge after his epic fall, or something. But my sense is, these people are not starting “from zero” the way you or I might be.

In the case of the NPR interviewee, he clearly had a sense of where the keys were, what they meant, how they related to the totality of music theory, as well as the physical ability to press any keys in any combination or order and according to any timing. These mere physical things were no mystery to him, nor even a challenge.

But he no longer knew how to play. That was what he had to relearn.

He said, “I developed a discipline, and it was all about finding the mental space where I could access that higher order. I would sit at the piano until I found the space, and then I would touch the keys… Find the space, touch the keys… Find the space, touch the key… Find the space, touch the keys…You see?…Find the space, touch the keys?… Until finally I could touch the keys and find the space.”

I remember thinking this was a remarkable load of crap. Oh my god.

But I totally get it now.

C-Collar Countdown is at 7. One week to destiny. Find the space, people.