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Kbachn: I hear you, I hear you!! I'm probably the most cynical, skeptical person on the List and Maryse tells us it is not a true story. However, it describes what I have been trying to do - play on one string. For example, for over a year now I have been protesting the war because I can sit on my walker. When I had my full faculties I didn't protest the Vietnam tragedy, either because I was too busy or lacked the courage or both. Whether you agree with my protesting the war or not doesn't change the fact that I get back some my power lost to PD when I do it. I get strength from doing what I can still do, knowing that this will not always be so. I agree totally that a life with full faculties is what ALL people deserve and working to achieve that can be empowering. But please, I don't intend or want to tell anyone else how to feel or what to do. Rayilyn Brown Board Member AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation [log in to unmask] ----- Original Message ----- From: "kbachn" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 2:21 AM Subject: Re: Making music with what you've got left > Very nice story Rayilynlee, amazing that he could improvise with just 3 > strings > > This is an inspiration but to be honest, i'd rather make the best out of > life with full faculties :-) ........ and please no angry replies back re > my > comments if i brought the readers down from the recently inspired state, > it's nice to be "inspired" but then again one has to be a realist. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "rayilynlee" <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2007 8:26 PM > Subject: Making music with what you've got left > > >> PERLMAN - playing on 3 strings >> >> On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a >> concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. If you >> have >> ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no >> small >> achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has >> braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. To see him >> walk >> across the stage one step at a time, painfully and slowly, is an awesome >> sight. >> He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he >> sits down, slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on >> his >> legs, tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he >> bends >> down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the >> conductor >> and proceeds to play. >> >> By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly while he >> makes >> his way across the stage to his chair. They remain reverently silent >> while >> he undoes the clasps on his legs. They wait until he is ready to play. >> >> But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few >> bars, >> one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap - it went >> off >> like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound >> meant. >> There was no mistaking what he had to do. We figured that he would have >> to >> get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way >> off >> stage - to either find another violin or else find another string for >> this >> one. But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then >> signaled the conductor to begin again. >> >> The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he >> played >> with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard >> 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, re-composing the piece in his >> head. >> At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new >> sounds >> from the m that they had never made before. When he finished, there was >> an >> awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was >> an >> extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. >> We >> were all on our feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything we could >> to >> show how much we appreciated what he had done. >> >> He smiled, wiped the sweat from this 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." >> >> What a powerful line that is. It has stayed in my mind ever since I heard >> it. And who knows? Perhaps that is the definition of life - not just for >> artists but for all of us. Here is a man who has prepared all his life to >> make music on a violin of four strings, who, all of a sudden, in the >> middle >> of a concert, finds himself with only three strings; so he makes music >> with >> three strings, and the music he made that night with just three strings >> was >> more beautiful, more sacred, more memorable, than any that he had ever >> made >> before, when he had four strings. >> >> So, perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in >> which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and then, >> when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left. >> >> Rayilyn Brown >> Board Member AZNPF >> Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation >> [log in to unmask] >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: >> mailto:[log in to unmask] >> In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn >> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: > mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn