I have a friend who sustained a concussion recently, and she sent me the link to a blog post that is short and very inspiring. I’ll include the link to the post below, but here’s the summary:
In 1995, a world-class violinist, Itzhak Perlman, performed on stage at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. He had polio as a child, and his ambulation is labored and assisted by braces and crutches. He came to the center of the stage, and began his performance. However, after only a few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke.
I’m going to quote the post directly now, since it is written so beautifully:
“There was no mistaking what had to be done.
The musician would have to get up, lock his braces, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage – to replace the broken string or find another violin. But he didn’t. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled to the conductor to begin again.
The orchestra began playing, and Perlman continued from where he had left off. And he played with more passion, power and purity than ever 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, and recomposing the piece in his head. At one point, it looked as if he was retuning the strings to make new sounds.
When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then the audience rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium.
Perlman smiled, wiped the sweat from his 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.’ …
So, perhaps our task in our current painful, bewildering life is to make music with what we have. And when that isn’t always possible, to learn to make music with what we have left.”
https://www.atime.org/chizuk/with-whats-left
My friend with the recent concussion said that this has so many applications to what she’s going through right now, and I believe that it applies to all of us in one way or another. Whether we have had a concussion or some other challenge — visible or invisible to others — we all have ways that we feel limited or hindered, and all we need to do is the best we can with what we have left.
Much Love,
Bethany