276. What We Need to Learn
There is an amazing story about the famous violinist Itzak Perlman. You see he had polio when he was a child, and so at concerts he walked on stage with braces on his legs and using crutches. The audience watched as he sat in the chair and removed each brace. He then placed one leg forward and the other leg back. He raised his violin and nodded to the conductor.
At this one particular concert in a matter of just a few measures the entire audience could hear the sound of the violin string that broke. Everything stopped and Perlman sat. He thought for a minute, then nodded to the conductor and they began again. He adjusted, he modulated, he played the entire piece, minus one string, and at the end there was astounded applause.
He motioned for silence and said, “It is the artist’s job to learn sometimes to play with what is left.”
It seems to me that that story does not just apply to Itzak Perlman but to each one of us. As we go through life we lose things and sure enough we have to have that creative spirit which invents how to continue to make music, to live life, with what we have left.
