Don't ask anyone else to like it for you. If you like it, do it. If not, don't.

This shouldn't be a big deal. Examine your life as to why it is. It aint about the guitar, I'm sure of that.

I guess that a lawyer has to be a pretty goal-oriented person. Now, that's fine and all, but I think that fighting your way toward a series of goals doesn't add up to a very appealing lifestyle. That's what you should be thinking about IMHO. Music is not a goal. It is a process which has no pre-defined target. When your husband asks you where this is going, tell him: the grave. We're all going to the grave. That's why making music is good. It's a great way to wrest some pleasure out of life, without money or competition. As for your kids, I think they benefit from seeing their mom struggle to do something simply for the love of it. What greater result from a hobby is available than to help your children learn a better balanced, less consumeristic lifestyle?

Death mocks all our paltry attempts to build, but has no power over the diminished 7th. I learned that from my father.

First of all, the LW is not planning to become a professional musician. She wants to make pleasant noises on the guitar. Moreover, she's enjoying the noises she is already making on the guitar - it's not like she's terribly dissatisfied with her stage of development. Why should she stop? Because she's not going to be the next Segovia? Sheesh. It does not matter how well she's playing - what matters is that she's enjoying it. She likes it. Who are you to tell her to quit?

Do you like to cook? Does it matter to you that you will never be as good as Julia Child? Do you like your job? Does it matter to you that you will never be as good as the best [fill in the blank] in the world? Do you like to dance? Does it matter that you'll never win a ballroom competition? Or, if you have no hobbies - how good are you at watching TV? Nope, sorry - you're not good enough. Please quit.

When I was in my 20's, I decided to take up martial arts. I am the clumsiest person imaginable. I am a weakling. I am very nonviolent, and just the idea of striking someone made me recoil inwardly. A more unsuitable person for tae kwon do can hardly be imagined. But I signed up anyway. I signed up because all my life, I've only done things I was very good at - things that were easy for me. Tae kwon do was hard. I was easily the worst student in our class. The things that were easy for my classmates were very very hard for me. I had to practice a lot more than they did. I progressed a lot slower than everyone else. It was a humbling experience for me, and one that I value. The yellow belt that I finally managed to earn, after an embarrassingly long period of time, is an accomplishment I value far more than most of my scholastic achievements. I had to work for that one.

Even if you, like many of the nay-sayers, erase the LW as a person and view her only as a wife and mother - think of the example this is setting for her kids. The kids are seeing their mother struggle hard with something that does not come naturally to her. They are seeing her keep going and not quit, no matter how hard things are getting. Surely that's a good example?

See this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFinPD8n1N8

Thanks for the link!

http://www.musicafter50.com/practice/

I've been playing guitar for 20 years (damn, I can't believe it's been that long). While learning an instrument is an end in itself, it also has wider-ranging repercussions. I grew up in the middle of nowhere in the mid-west, and playing guitar got me interested in music, which expanded my worldview. As I learned more about music, I couldn't help but become more discerning about what I listened to, and that carried over to film, art, literature, politics, and every other aspect of life. I was later fortunate enough to be in a couple of bands that put out records (back when people still bought records) and I managed to visit a bunch of countries on tour, places I never would have seen had I not played guitar.

I never made any money, and now I'm in my mid-thirties and just now getting started on having a career (in the middle of the worst recession of my lifetime), but if I had never started to play music I shudder to think what my life would have been like. I may have left my hometown, but I would probably never have traveled to Australia or Spain. But even if you play only to amuse yourself (that's how I started), music is a valuable and rewarding activity.

Had I never started playing the guitar, my life would have been boring as hell. I'm sure I would still have that small-town mid-western mindset had music not expanded my horizons. Being curious and learning about music is a great exercise, and is wonderful to apply to other areas of your life. If I had never played guitar, I might never have read Balzac, been to the Guggenheim, or seen any Tarkovsky movies (or Jackie Chan, for that matter). In fact, I'd probably still be going to church, might have voted for George W. Bush, and might even have gone to see that crappy Transformers movie this weekend. Instead, trust me, things are much better.

So, by all means, keep playing guitar. It sounds like you are so wrapped up in living your life that you don't have time to create anything. You have to have time in life to create, and to appreciate what others have created.

(And if, at some point in the future, guitar starts to bore you, then just move on to something else. After 20 years I was starting to get a little bored, so I just picked up the banjo. That oughtta keep me occupied for another few years.)