What Makes Your Eyes Shine?

"Classical Music is for EVERYONE!" - Benjamin Zander

Benjamin Zander has a viewpoint: Everyone loves Classical Music, they just don't know it yet. If you don't believe me, click the link above. 

I have to admit that I'm wandering a bit, freely associating with what pops into my mind and trying to get a handle on why I am not very focused at the tasks at hand. 

Along the way, I tripped over the Ted talk that kicked off this post, which reminded me of Tommy Shaw and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra as well. And that rounded me back to shining eyes.

Shining eyes. 

Why were my eyes were shining? 

There are days that I cannot keep up with the simple job of troubleshooting the technology that allows our customers to access the website to do the things they wish to do. My eyes shine when I can help someone solve a problem that has troubled them for some time. My eyes also shine when I cannot.

And sometimes they shine when I cannot help the customer at all, and they take out their dissatisfaction on me. It's part of the job, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant.

Sometimes my eyes shine when I think of someone who is no longer living. That list grows longer, sometimes on a monthly basis.

One of these days my name will be on that list. I'm guessing that my eyes will be closed, not shining,  so it will be something of a moot point. While I regret any sorrow I add to the world, I hope someone's eyes will shine when they think of me. 

Come to think of it, I hope people when think of me now, their eyes shine. Why wait until later?

I should get down to something a little less morbid and a little more encouraging. 

What say about this Covid stuff? I hope you are alive and moving around, as much as people will let you all things considered.

If you've caught the bug, and you are reading this, I happy that you are alive. If you haven't caught the bug, by all means get vaccinated to prevent catching the bug. Y'know, kinda like we do for flu, or measles or chicken-pox when we were young. 

But I have heard some strange stuff: vaccinated people can get the bug from unvaccinated people. That's flat wrong; the whole point of the vaccination is that you wouldn't get the disease that you have been vaccinated for. 

Otherwise, what is the point of the vaccine?

The point of the vaccine is NOT to beat people up (sometimes literally) about whether or not you've gotten the vaccination in the first place.

A lot of nonsense has, what, brewed? appeared? been carried on the breeze? I don't know. All I know is that people have been saying things like what I mentioned above ("Non-vaccinated people give vaccinated people Covid"). 

I wish people would get it straight. Families have been split up over such nonsense.

The purpose of ANY vaccine is to prevent the disease the vaccine was cultured for. In other words, the flu vaccine doesn't cover you for Covid. All vaccines need the occasional booster to bring back full effective immunity levels (apparently, Covid need a booster more often than most diseases). Unless you have had the disease, you should get the vaccine. This goes for measles, chicken-pox, Covid, what-have-you.

All this noise about you being this kind of [fill in your favorite epithet here], if you do/don't get the vaccine should just stop.

And before you ask, I didn't get mumps, small-pox, polio, lockjaw, and a few other unpleasant diseases BECAUSE I was vaccinated. Even though I had little say in the matter at the time; my parents made that choice for me, I am very happy they decided for, and not against the vaccine. Small-pox can kill you outright, infantile paralysis (polio) can kill or cripple you. Nuff said.

I believe in vaccines.

Covid is dangerous. Being vaccinated against it is good. Berating people about their choice of vaccine, or whether to be vaccinated, is polarizing, pushing us apart as a society, not bringing us together. There is enough of this pushing us apart as it is.

The one thing that can potentially get us all on the same page is learning/education. And by education I am NOT meaning propaganda by one faction or another. 

The WHO, the CDC, and other such institutions have ended up being suspect by the way they've allowed governments with axes to grind fund/pull funding, dictate to, allowing themselves to be influenced. Whether they can be trusted, many people do not trust these medical oversight bodies to speak the straight truth (not naming names).

Rather than depend on these official bodies, my wife and I have chosen to fall back on what I have learned in my youth, as well as her nurse's training The both of us have kept up with the literature, and I mean before all the stuff bandied about by the media after Covid struck.

I will not recommend a vaccine type, or even insist that you get vaccinated. As I say, however, I believe in the benefit of vaccines.

Enough of this. Back to what kicked off this post in the first place: Shining Eyes.

As Benjamin Zander, and I after him, everybody loves classical music. Most people just don't know it yet. If you don't believe me, then click this LINK.

You may not agree with me, and that is fine. Just give it a chance ...

... A chance to make your eyes shine. 

Then see about making someone else's eyes shine. You can do it.

Yes, You Can!

Good Enough is Not Good Enough

This weekend brought many things to my personal inbox of Eyes and Ears. My schedule is such that my sleep rhythms are not what they should be. I often find myself awake at three in the morning. Depending on the next day’s duties I try to get back to sleep, or get up and do something productive.

This particular morning I tried going back to sleep, with the aid of boring early morning television (not infomercials, please, those keep me awake, or, if I do doze off, I’m quoting their nonsense for the rest of the day. Which is what they hope for, of course…).

The show I lucked into was not boring, though, at least not to me, a musician of sorts.

It was about a chamber orchestra, conducted by an amazing woman, and comprised of highly skilled and talented women musicians. I emphasize the fact of their gender because the program emphasized it. That, and the fact that they were from and based in Cuba.

What they are, in fact, are great!

I found myself needing to retrain my ear a bit to keep up with the music I was hearing. It wasn’t just classical string quartet, chamber music, or other such, though it certainly was that. It was Cuban rhythms and themes set to the voices of violin, viola, cello and bass. It was the cry of sorrow, and the song of triumph; the moan of defeat, and the exultation of joy!

In short, that orchestra was good!

How did they get that way?

Those of you who are musicians may recall the old joke of a man running down a New York street carrying an instrument case. He asks a street musician, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” The street musician tells him, “Practice, man, practice!”

These women balance hectic lives as students, workers or mothers (sometimes all of the above) and still find time to practice, pay for lessons, and take direction from a singularly driven conductor. The conductor herself is driven to achieve a result as close to perfection as is humanly possible.

The result could be chaos.

What it is: a thing of beauty.

How do they achieve this result? Two things are required: a goal, and the will to achieve it.

Each of these women chose to follow a hard road. Music lessons cost money that could be put to use paying bills or buying food. The instruments themselves are costly. The time to practice might be better used to work to bring in a little more money, or to spend time with friends and family. Musicians sacrifice much for their goal: perhaps unattainable musical perfection.

They know sorrow.

But they also know joy. Their music comes from their hearts and souls. And long, hard practice.

In my humble opinion, the violin is second only to the human voice in its expressiveness. Some would say that, in the hands of a talented and trained musician, the violin surpasses the human voice, literally singing trills, runs, and duets. These same people tell me that to become that accomplished is a lot of work.

These women are united by a common vision provided by their conductor, and by combined decades of practice, lessons and training in the pursuit of excellence.

In short, a goal, and the force of will to achieve it.

You may not be following the musician’s path, but you can take a lesson away from this essay today. Follow your vision (you may need to find it first). Set your goal. Dedicate the necessary effort to achieve it.

Yes, you CAN!

PS: As it happened, I ended up getting up and doing something productive anyway. The Hot Cross Buns were delicious!