No, this is not an add for a legendary periodical!
Prospero año y felicidad!
Bonne et heureuse année!
Glückliches neues Jahr!
Well if life begins at 40, I feel like I must be 80 because I don’t feel like a toddler, but rather like someone who wants to settle down and put into practice the wisdom life acquired through blood, sweat and tears.
Truth is, there are SO MANY THINGS I want to do, but I realized that 24h/day and 7days/week doesn’t allow for much. So which do I choose among:
| Musically, I want to: | At home I want to: | Professionally: | Adventure Craves: | My body wants to: |
| Re-Learn the piano and harmony (incl. jazz). | Read Lord of the Rings! | Make Studio Jam a serious tool. | Lots of blogging and Tweeting! | Do nautilus and stretching. |
| Get a cello and a flugelhorn and build a simple repertoire. | Install the new bathroom lights and caulk the sinks & tub. | Make CBIOOWTy a real development library. | Helping neighbours with their dogs’ behaviour and tricks. | Do body-building with an expert trainer. |
| Find some musicians and play with them. | Paint the house and organize the garage & basement! | Publish on Real Time collaboration and Music Technology. | Take my dogs to Gatineau and other parks every week. | Do winter cycling and snow-showing. |
| Do a bunch of orchestrations in Finale. | Fix the dogs’ walls and build a backsplash. | Learn and program in Python, QT and for mobile devices. | Research into parapsychology and religious mysticism. | Learn Tai-Chi and Brazilian martial arts. |
| Learn to improvise in Cuban and Jazz. | Get wood turning tools and make oboe bells! | Build my own collaborative web sites. | Off-roading! | Learn fencing and archery! |
… and these exclude those that cross my mind on whims!
Assuming I have another 40-50 years to live (and unlimited money!), I can certainly do all that and much more. Problem is, I have observed that a person’s attention span is usually limited to “today” and “this week”. We are capable of imagining “this month” and we can stretch our patience to “this year”, but beyond that becomes hope, dreaming and wishful thinking… planning, yes, but still nothing tangible to satisfy our immediate emotions.
As the song says “If I could save time in a bottle…”, so one has to chose what is most precious. In my case, many of the choices are imposed on me: I must work on reducing pain, preventing injury and slowing down natural degeneration. After that, my dogs require a fair bit of time to care (living sentient beings are note mere chattel) and a house demands upkeep… both of which could benefit from a stronger body!
By God’s Grace, may my job predict stability and calm in the foreseeable future or I would have no time left for music at all. So a choice must be made and I gladly choose the oboe, forsaking other leisures and interests.
Even so, how many hours a day are necessary to practice long-tones, make reeds and do scales just as a warm-up so that practicing the repertoire (alone) will yield real results in preparation for playing with others? Considering my last public performance was in 1998 (well below professional grade) and that I have essentially not practiced for 10 years until last summer, how many hours must I devote to attain my former abilities, humble as they were? No matter, the joy is in the journey and/or the chase!
So for the New-Year I wish unto you all the wisdom of time. May your minds be at ease with clarity in what matters to you, in your lives, and may your environments (social, professional, family and neighbourhood) leave you the time to spend on what matters and the discipline to use it right.
Happy 2011 to everyone:
may peace and happiness in truth guide us all!
8 comments:
Ahhh, more than half my life is over for sure, and it could very well be that more than 2/3 of my life is over. At this point I don't frequently think on these things. I suppose I should!
Time is an extremely strange fellow.
Mostly I want to do the right thing. I try to follow something from a book in a book I should read yet ignore: Micah 6:8
But that's just me ....
To that one could respond the book of the Ecclesiastes and a famous song by the Byrds (Turn, turn, turn....)!
Between that, the parable of the talents and the understanding that God feeds the birds, though they till not the soil, I think we can understand that the main point of being alive is enjoying life with gratitude (expressed in charity)!
Hi Robin,
I just found your blog (and twitter), and it's funny to read it because I am in the same situation as you. I used to play my oboe professionally, but then I stopped to go to graduate school in a different field. Now, after about 10 years, I am getting back to my oboe with a renewed passion for it. I can't believe I left it for this long...
I too have a blog that I share some thought about music, oboe, and my own experiences rediscovering the instrument. I haven't been very good about updating it regularly, but you can find it at http://paulomusic.wordpress.com .
Cheers!
Well, we get caught up in just getting our lives on track... once it is, music (the oboe in particular) comes back like a ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds. Sorry to sound so melodramatic, but's that's how I feel! Actually, You-Tube and the great collection of CS's at the public library has helped a lot with this.
A quick look at your blog: will bookmark that one! You have some good videos on your blog: how do I sign up for notifications on Word-Press? With mine, just click the [follow] button at the top.
I am a BIG fan of Albrecht Mayer! I respect Hartmann for his specialization on Pasculli: not my favourite music, but I really appreciate taking the oboe to the virtuosic level of the violin like Paganini!
Let's keep in touch, shall we? I think people in our situation need to encourage each other!
Hi Robin,
I understand the feeling of the ray of sunshine through the clouds. I'm going with it this time.
I have already bookmarked your blog. To sign up for mine, on the bottom of the right column, you can either enter your email address to be notified by email, or you can receive the updates through RSS feed.
We should definitely keep in touch.
Done: using RSS. I find this a really good (if old) protocol that should never have been eclipsed by Facebook and Twitter.... The latter 2 have their merits and uses, but I find that social trends and cool stuff tends to vanquish practicality and good sense!
I am a first time reader here.
You have presented an intriguing array of pertinent factors here, and allowed me to see a bit more into the mechanism of blogging (I'm somewhat new to it) - As you are using it here, I see how a real communication about substantive matters could occur...
Now this "I really appreciate taking the oboe to the virtuosic level of the violin like Paganini!" of course I find intriguing again.
Kewl stuff.
I'll be back.
Wayne
Hey, thanks Wayne!
I looked at your website: worth looking into more deeply: if you make a blog, please let me know where to find it. Does your site do notifications (RSS, e-mail)? Oklahoma is a bit far from Ontario, but your things are intersting. The oboe makers Howarth (London) and Rigoutat (Paris) have special lines for children as young as 6 and they conduct special classes (can't find the links). So anyone who tells me the oboe is horribly difficult....
I'm new to blogging too. I just started this because the OboeBBoard churned-up some really great discussions over the summer and fall. By the nature of a BBoard, a lot of the informaiton gets diluted in the conversation and eventually beomes hard to search. When I presented the idea of this blog on the BBoard, I got a few encouragements, so I figured: go for it and tell your story!
Cheers and Happy New Year!
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