This Email first mailed to all Members of 'The Serious Writers Guild' and subscribers to 'One Minute With Dec' on

16 March 2007

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   "Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss" 

Emily - age 8
 

 

 "To make music with what we have left"

 On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York  City. If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. To see him walk across the stage one step at a time, painfully and slowly, is an awesome sight.

He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he sits down, slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs, tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he bends down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.

By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly while he makes his way across the stage to his chair. They remain reverently silent while he undoes the clasps on his legs. They wait until he is ready to play.

But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap - it went off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound meant. There was no mistaking what he had to do. We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage - to either find another violin or else find another string for this one. But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again.

The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before.

Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that.

You could see him modulating, changing, re-composing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before. When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. We were all on our feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything we could to show how much we appreciated what he had done.

He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quiet us, and then he said - not boastfully, but in a quiet, pensive, reverent tone - "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left."

What a powerful line that is. It has stayed in my mind ever since I heard it. And who knows? Perhaps that is the definition of life - not just for artists but for all of us. Here is a man who has prepared all his life to make music on a violin of four strings, who, all of a sudden, in the middle of a concert, finds himself with only three strings; so he makes music with three strings, and the music he made that night with just three strings was more beautiful, more sacred, more memorable, than any that he had ever made before, when he had four strings.

So, perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left.

 
 A quote from Teddy Roosevelt : "You've got to do what you can, where you are, with what you've got." 

Visual Laugh?  [ When it's okay to say the f-word... ]

www.makehits.com/When it's okay to say the f-word...001.jpg

 "Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."

Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."

Cindy - age 8

Success Stories  [ More great stories ]

 Hi  Dec

FURNAZE the band is going well, the drummer (oh this endless story...) appears to have grown up and now turns up on time.

Just got back from a smashing gig at the 12 Bar in London (small but packed), lots of praise for the performance (well, after all, I was taught all about the 'the music is the easy bit' by you of course..) another great review in the US...

Did another one last Tuesday with some other bands on the bill and can you believe that one of the guys turned up without an instrument (bass) and asked to borrow one???

The rest of his band didn't know that a tuner is a good investment....Again, thanks for always being there and for the motivation

Andie Cayne

  Another:

Dec

I started your 10 month program and read through it about 4 times now. Late last night I started Napoleon Hills' book "Think and Grow Rich"

I simply can't put it down. I just keep on reading and reading.

It is amazing stuff and wonderfull. Suddenly it is as if a light switched on!

 

Thank you

 

Berril

And Another:

Thank you Dec for your swift reply.  In fact, thank you Dec for being born.

Regards,    Dave.  

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."

Elaine-age 5

 

====================

1) Kaiser Chiefs  ... Ruby  ... (B Unique/ Polydor)  ... www.kaiserchiefs.co.uk 

2) Gwen Stefani Ft Akon ...The Sweet Escape ...(Interscope) ...http://www.gwenstefani.com 

3) Take That .... Shine ...(Polydor) ...http://www.takethattv.com