Trap Makes Learning Fun
As Luck Would Have It …
Eddie Tuduri
Not many have been spared the pain and the sorrow of illness, or traumatic injury, be it your own or that of a loved one. The ultimate loss is profound and often reminisced in hurt and wounded spirit. Sadness harbors in a shivering soul.
I wish not this menace on anyone-- yet another prayer unanswered, another tear shed. Life and death are an enigmatic puzzle of chance, fate, and mystery.
My life in dissimilarity has been cloaked in good fortune and Divine Intervention. Some folks would disagree as I’ve had several physical mishaps throughout my occupancy here on the planet.
A precarious body surfing accident in 1997 left me paralyzed from the neck down. After six hours in the OR, the incomparable Doctor Scott Conner, R.I.P., surgically defined a new path and direction in my life. A new ball game, if you will. I took inventory of my physical prowess while fear never entered the surmise. I could see, I could blink my eyes, I could talk, and I could wiggle my ears! Ok, I can work with this and so, I stepped up to the plate!
They told me I would never walk or have any normal bodily function.
Six weeks later I walked out of the hospital with a cane, and into my car. I drove home and resumed living. That was nearly 30 years ago.
I had not been touched by sadness, grief, or remorse in my broken body, or my new veracity, I didn’t question where it came from. I accepted it, void of aggrandizing.
*I founded, authored, and directed ‘The Rhythmic Arts Project’ while living in an old motorhome parked illegally on a ranch in the foothills of Carpinteria. The Local Newspaper bought me a computer, in appreciation for my volunteering at Cottage Hospital where I had recovered. I taught myself how to type, sort of, and pecked away! I’m still pecking away at it and in doing so I’ve published two books and a myriad of educational curriculum, lesson plans, and magazine articles on everything you can imagine from Rock & Roll to Rubber-Soul.
My 7th grade teacher, Mr. Keough had his students write I must not talk in class 300 times on the blackboard as a penance for speaking in class or … something more nefarious. That is everyone but me! He thought my writing had a quirky merit and so directed my atonement in a useful way. He would ask me to write an essay, 300 words or less, describing life on the inside of a Ping-Pong ball. Always a different scenario, a convoluted plot. My nephew, Bobby, still has some of these stories he collected in his youth. We have big fun with these whoppers whenever they surfaced from time to time.
*I focused on my playing after a couple of years to a point where I could play gigs and various concerts again. I made several CDs’ and albums with diverse and assorted artists. One of my favorite bass players, Terry Wilson and I played together for many years.
I went to see him with his incredible wife “Teresa James & The Rhythm Tramps” playing one night nearby. They asked me to sit in, and I declined. I hadn’t played live anywhere since the accident. I eventually acquiesced and they helped maneuver me behind the drum kit. I played the last tune of the night and as luck would have it, it I didn’t suck! Terry helped me out from behind the set and put his arm around me as we walked across the dance floor. He then said in quiet deliberation, you should have broken your neck a long time ago!
Slowly overtime, my confidence returned and as luck would have it, my drums began to matter again. A powerful yet discrete calm settled in.
As life rolled along, TRAP became recognized world-wide having touched thousands of lives across the globe. Case in point, gratitude and grace prevailed over strife and illness.
And so, I’ve been granted another shot at the Title.
And what might that be you ask?
Why Life itself of course
About the Author
Eddie Tuduri is the founder and director of The Rhythmic Arts Project. He is a career musician who has worked with many of the world’s great entertainers, both touring and in countless recordings. Spanning more than 50 years, Eddie was privileged to work and many times record as a sideman with artists including Delaney Bramlett, Bobby Whitlock, The Beach Boys, Dobie Gray, Del Shannon, Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, Dr. John, Ike Turner, “Boxer,” Ronnie Hawkins, The Down Child Blues Band, “Chilliwack,” The Five Man Electric Band, Wha-Koo, Bill Champlin, Marianne Faithful, Martha Reeves, John Stewart, Steve Perry, Kenny Neal, Tata Vega, Ronnie Laws, Dwight Yoakum, Johnny Rivers, Freddy Fender and Charlie Rich, Michael McDonald, Jimmy Messina and JD Souther to name a few.