In my opinion, if you are asking around for help moving, the fact that a piano is one of the pieces being moved should be disclosed up front. Alas, that is not everyone’s perspective, usually whoever is begging for help. I recently had the opportunity to help someone move, someone who, as it turns out, owns a piano (a family heirloom nonetheless). But there was good news. The moving party involved 4 able bodied men (including myself), which for a smallish piano, seems like plenty. However, the way things shook out did not align so nicely.
The group was moving many smaller pieces of furniture, and when almost everything was packed except the piano, it somehow worked out to be just me and one other gentleman near the piano (the others mysteriously absent). Now, when I say “gentleman” what might give a more accurate picture is “Hulk” or “Atlas”. The guy was as deep as he was wide and I imagine he has to inch through most doorways sideways in order to avoid hitting his arms. Enough said.
He turns to me and says, “We got this”, nonchalantly.
My mind races… “What did he just say? He couldn’t possibly mean….”
The Hulk gets into position on one end of the piano. “There’s a good handhold on both sides, let’s get it out onto the porch”
*sigh* “Sure”, I say.
We lift together and… surprisingly the piano raises and we inch towards the door. The door is narrow, so I begin to put my side down so we can get aligned and make sure not to crush our hands (I’ve grown rather fond of them). Atlas keeps holding his end, apparently content to hold a few hundred pounds as I shake out my hands and try to work out the angles.
“Alright, lets go”, he says. The piano gets part way through the door and I stall. The way I have a grip on the thing I cannot make it through the door. Mercifully, at that moment another one of the guys rushes to our aid. From that moment on, it’s not pretty but we manage to carry the piano across the porch, down the stairs, through the yard, and up into a truck bed.
Through all of this, all I could think was, “there are 4 guys here, why are we not just waiting for the other two?”. In my experience, pianos normally take exactly the number of people you have available in order to be moved. We had 4, so it should have taken 4. Sure, we got it done (kind of), but that’s not the point. Since we went ahead without all the help we could get, I got left with many sore muscles and a nasty looking bruise that runs the length of my forearm.
So, my takeaway from this, first of all, is that I would actually like to discover a way to get out of moving pianos in the future. Secondly, I think this relates to how many of us often find ourselves going through life. As much as possible, we rely on our own power. There is so much more help available at a moments notice (I’m looking at you, Holy Spirit), but we prefer to go it alone. But why? What are we trying to accomplish? There is peace in His power, and I think we could often avoid some of the aches and pains we heap on ourselves through self reliance.