Note: Every once in awhile I will listen to our local NPR station during a “This I Believe” segment. Different listeners read their essays on air about, you guessed it, what they believe. So what do I believe? Just in case I ever decide to write one of these, I would expand upon the following ideas.
I believe someday Houstonians will turn on their headlights when it is raining. This will happen because they are probably all going to read this blog.
I believe that I am turning into my parents. I feel lucky that my parents are awesome. The way I feel about my parents, who I love more than any “This I believe” segment that I can say, is that they live on in me. I bet that’s true of everyone, even if you don’t want to be. Our genes that get passed on through children is maybe just a inadvertent way of making sure some part of us is always living on.
I believe that I will never hear music like I did when I didn’t know anything about it. Classical music has always been natural to me, and the love I had for it in high school was based on pure fascination and emotion. James Dunham has a daughter, an artist, who after years of schooling told him that she can’t appreciate art at the highest level because she has become too critical and lost in the technical aspects. Once you know so much, this knowledge never disappears. And so, as much as I love the viola and the music I make, my indescribable concept that I had originally had of music is forever changed. It becomes less magical and more about the random chance of genes lining up to create gifted geniuses with the ability and work ethic to write it down. I don’t know what I believe about whether this is part of some bigger plan.
I believe that if that if you write enough about something you believe in, you can find a way to justify your beliefs. I remember a 9th grade assignment in Ms. Vogel’s English class where we were to write two separate essays supporting two opposing sides of a debate. I believe if the project is done correctly, you will believe whichever you are writing at the time. This I believe, and if you disagree and are just as persuadable as me, try writing about how you agree with me and then you will.
JCI,
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you realize how many people are stuck inside their places all alone for Holiday Break and need desperately something to read and are wondering when your next post will be?
- A Concerned Reader
After reading your blog entry this morning, it got me thinking about your comment on never being able to hear music the same way after knowing too much about it. I have memories of listening to classical music on the car radio and on my turntable in my bedroom as a young kid. You are right in way, that you can never listen in the same way. That's true of everything in life, though, as you get older. (The very core of mid-life crisis.) And part of the journey of life (to me) is to keep finding things that inspire me viscerally. (When you have kids you will have a whole new spin on this!) But after almost 5 decades on this planet I can say that music can still move me in the way it used to, and better. I cannot hear a Brahms viola sonata or Bach and not be drawn into it with a passion and new appreciation. Being a teacher, it is so wonderful when one of my students moves me in a completely unexpected way. (You were one of those students...) It's like, "Why didn't I think of it like that before?"
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