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Showing posts from March, 2012

If I should have a daughter

If I should have a daughter…“Instead of “Mom”, she’s gonna call me “Point B.” Because that way, she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way to me. And I’m going to paint the solar system on the back of her hands so that she has to learn the entire universe before she can say “Oh, I know that like the back of my hand.” She’s gonna learn that this life will hit you, hard, in the face, wait for you to get back up so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air. There is hurt, here, that cannot be fixed by band-aids or poetry, so the first time she realizes that Wonder-woman isn’t coming, I’ll make sure she knows she doesn’t have to wear the cape all by herself. Because no matter how wide you stretch your fingers, your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal. Believe me, I’ve tried. And “Baby,” I’ll tell her “don’t keep yo

Normal

"We're all pretty strange one way or another; some of us just hide it better. "Normal" is a dryer setting." ~Unknown

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Great artist

As a young cellist I had played to an audience that had included Pablo Casals and reacted with poor, nervous playing. Casals sought me out after the concert and praised me highly, somewhat easing the pain and thinking him a very kind man. Years later I again ran into Casals and thanked him for being kind to a very nervous kid. Angry, he rushed to the cello. "Listen!" He played a phrase from the Beethoven sonata. "Didn't you play this fingering? It was novel to me. It was good. And here, didn't you attack that passage with an upbow, like this?" He went through Schumann and Bach, emphasizing all he liked that I had done. "And for the rest," he said passionately, "leave it to the ignorant and stupid, who judge by counting only the faults. I can be grateful, and so must you be, for even one note, one wonderful phrase." I left with the feeling of having been with a great artist and friend. ~ Gregor Piatigorsky