Wandering with Uncle Bud™
In the company of greatness
Nov 29, 2004, 16:29

By Uncle Bud,

On Friday afternoon, I was privileged to spend three hours in the company of greatness. The greatness reported was in the form of two remarkably multi-talented professionals … Mark and Caren Reiner.

Mark and Caren Reiner gaze upon us from the staircase in the grand hall.

The easy way out in any interview is to simply label the subject thereby comfortably putting it into a category for the readers’ mind. While reviewing my notes and memories of the interview last night, I found out the easy way won’t work … even my great thesaurus ran short of pages.

How does one go about explaining how two people have managed to master, yes master, so many diversified fields as music – engineering – architecture – woodworking – painting (and I don’t mean walls either) – anthropology – physiology - just to name a few?

You are not going to get my summary so quickly though as I’m going to drag you through the entire tour before I answer the question of what makes these two fine individuals so successful … successful in virtually every endeavor they have taken on to date. Let’s tour their home and you'll pick up some tips on these two.

The pleasant combination of stone, wood and glass.

The Reiner family castle is tucked away in the Cabinet Mountain foot hills just north of Sandpoint. (I’m not going to pin point the place for you because we are going to leave them alone out of respect … you’ll soon learn why.)

As you enter through the imposing and majestic entrance to their home you are immediately flooded with warmth from wood, stone and glass surrounding you just inside the short foyer. This is a large home. 3,000 plus square feet with approximately 2,400 square feet of living space. Unique? Not really. Comfortable is the correct word to describe their home … comfortable and functional for the entire family.

Wood, and more wood adds a unique look to this beautiful home.

The use of wood, and the way it was carved and placed, appears to embrace the numerous pieces of art and artifacts that adorn the walls. The stairs to the upper living quarters is a delight to see as it acts as a magnet to draw you to the paintings. At about this time, I gave up asking who did this for them as the answer was always “we did, she did, or he did.”

As we moved around through the first level, I was impressed with the ease of flow and also with the several areas where you could sort of hide out for the I need my own space for awhile. Yes, they designed it, engineered it, and constructed it. Going into the kitchen the word “country” hits you. (Forgive me for the label) It is simply a functional kitchen in the truest sense of the word because it is large and well designed with an obvious emphasis put on function as opposed to space saving cabinetry, etc.

What is a country kitchen without a country stove?

Don’t ask, because yes, they do cook and heat with this 100-year-old beauty. At the far end of the oblong kitchen space is another family type room they use as a library. It is becoming pretty obvious by now that they have in fact, read and studied a lot of books in their life. From the kitchen we moved to the basement to take a look at the shop area.

Given all the woodwork, glass work, and you name it from upstairs, I had sort of expected to see commercial grade saws, sanders, etc. Nope, what I did see was well placed power tools that ran the gauntlet from tablesaw to belt sander, and all were simple, yet effective homeowner level tools. (The words for my summary are beginning to build.) The shop was clean, and not just for my visit either. Add the word discipline to their summary.

Back upstairs, I was drawn to a small room with this fantastic door. Stepping inside, my first thought was what a great place to meditate, pray or simply be at peace. I did not question the use of this particular room out of respect … respect for the work and effort that went into building it. I did however question Mr. Reiner about his selection of wood for his carvings and this door. His choice stock was black walnut he purchased in rough cut timber form. (Add frugal to their growing label list.)

Special entrance to a special room.

We spent the major portion of the interview in the Reiner’s grand hall (my label) surrounded by the ambience of high textured ceilings and soothed by afternoon light patterns dancing around the room. Two grand pianos, one on each side of the room face opposite directions. Let me say here that I quickly suppressed the desire to ask either of these two master musicians to “please play something for us.” I was in their sanctuary, their studio … the place where they practice, play and compose. I was so humbled just being in their presence that I was ready to ask them if I could wash their pickup or something.

Throughout this long interview, I noted (with pleasure) that neither of them were chest beaters, so to draw them out, I began to toot my own horn so to speak. Sure enough, I began to get short one line responses to my ramblings about all the great things I’ve done in life and still want to do. You have to listen close to these two, and by all means watch their eye contact between one another. They remained in control, but managed to get their points across in a very short and efficient fashion.

It has been a long time since I’ve been so comfortable with two professionals. They appear aloof, but in reality, they are far removed from aloofness. In fact, I don’t think they are driven by the superiority type motives even though given their collective credentials; they certainly are entitled to act superior … to me at least.

I would love to see these two sitting at their respective grand pianos while participating in a musical battle. There has to be some piece of music somewhere that let’s two piano players attempt to gain ground on one another through their skill as musicians. I’m going to find such a musical piece and call upon them again.

Before closing my report and giving you my personal summary of these two artists, I would be remiss in my reporting if I failed to mention their charming daughter Akasha who I met briefly and their son Aryan who I spotted outside their home. I learned that both of these young people are accomplished musicians in their own right. Rounding out the Reiner household members is Roscoe. It was easy to label Roscoe as he was an obvious Type "A" who has a problem about being loved … by everyone. He had unusually good eye contact for a dog, but lousy peripheral vision as I was able to grab his tail a couple of times. His senses were in order as he seemed to anticipate when I was trying to step on his front paws. Kissed a lot, but did not slobber.

Music has been the driving force in their life ever since they were in college. Music and their joint mastery of it is the cornerstone to their daily life. The long road they traveled together to reach their level of musical expertise gave them some great tools … discipline, ability to remain focused on a goal, and a tenacious spirit that comes from within when setting personal goals.

In summary, we have to say discipline, staying focused, and a positive attitude are obvious keys to success.

Speaking of goals … they both asked me to help them educate the North Idaho community on the Pend Oreille Orchestra and Chorale. I am honored to accept their challenge. Who knows, we just may be able to use the names Bach, Mozart and Willie Nelson in the same paragraph.

Your Uncle Bud is a better person for having met these two unique and talented people.

© Copyright 2007 by RuralNorthwest.com