Piano Blog

Art as Spiritual Fuel

 This morning a piece of music charged me with so much emotion that I immediately thought of one of my favorite sections from Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead-- where a boy comes upon Howard Roark's architectural masterpiece. 

"Thank you," said the boy. He knew that the steady eyes looking at him understood everything these two words had to cover. Howard Roark inclined his head, in acknowledgment.

Wheeling his bicycle by his side, the boy took the narrow path down the slope of the hill to the valley and the houses below. Roark looked after him. He had never seen the boy before and he would never see him again. He did not know that he had given someone the courage to face a lifetime."

Dealing with the arts (or teaching them) can be stressful. I know that after a day of teaching I'm wiped out. Its good to step back and realize how great it is to be involved with the things that make life worth living. 

Take what you want and pay for it

There's a Rudolf Serkin story where he and a violinist were waiting on a cab to take them to their performance. Instead of waiting, Serkin went back inside for 10 extra minutes of practice. When the cab arrived, the violinist asked, "Will that really make your performance tonight any better?" Serkin replied, "Yes. Ten minutes better." 

This anecdote epitomizes one of my favorite proverbs: "Take what you want and pay for it." I love this Spanish proverb because it addresses so many of life's conflicts. How many problems are caused by being unaware of what it is we really want or being unwilling to pay the price? 

Having values means knowing your priorities and allocating your time and effort accordingly. It means thinking hard about how to gain and keep what you really want in life, instead of just drifting and hoping for the best. The value is what we want and time and energy are the price we pay for it. And since time and energy are limited, we have to find creative ways to employ these resources, as well as make decisions about what gets precedence in our life. We also have to make sure what we want is in line with our long term goals instead of just momentary whim. I think most people, myself often included, sell themselves short by being unaware of how these ends and means align. 

If you want job fulfillment, are you willing to think hard about your long term goals and work towards them? If you want relationship fulfillment, are you willing to put in the time and attention to build something really great; to give someone else that much priority in your life? If you want robust health, are you willing to give up all that junk food and go to the gym regularly? In other words, are you willing to focus and act thoughtfully, instead of going with the flow and settling for mediocrity or worse?  

Piano Blog

This is my first post on pianoblog. I want to see what it will look like. Here, I will talk about piano and whatever else I want.