Tale to Understand How to make Best Use of the Situations given to us in life!

This is just toooo beautiful......



THE PERFECT VIOLINIST

- As narrated by a Reporter who was present in hisconcert

On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, cameon stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall atLincoln Center in New York City.

If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you knowthat getting on stage is no small achievement for him.He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he hasbraces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. To see him walk across the stage one step ata time, painfully and slowly, is an awesome sight.

He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reacheshis 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 footforward. Then he bends down and picks up the violin,puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor andproceeds to play.

By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sitquietly while he makes his way across the stage to hischair. 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 hefinished the first few bars, one of the strings on hisviolin broke. You could hear it snap - it went offlike gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound meant. There was no mistaking what hehad to do.

We figured that he would have to get up, put on theclasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his wayoff stage - to either find another violin or else findanother string for this one. But he didn't. Instead,he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaledthe conductor to begin again.

The orchestra began, and he played from where he hadleft 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 playa symphonic work with just three strings. I know that,and you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlmanrefused to know that.

You could see him modulating, changing, re-composingthe piece in his head. At one point, it sounded likehe was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds fromthem that they had never made before.

When he finished, there was an awesome silence in theroom. And then people rose and cheered. There was anextraordinary outburst of applause from everycornerof the auditorium. We were all on our feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything we could to show howmuch we appreciated what he had done.

He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, raised hisbow 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 muchmusic you can still make with what you have left." !!

SPIRITUAL COMMENTARY

What a powerful line that is! Perhaps that is thedefinition of life - not just for artists but for all of us.

Here is a man who has prepared all his life to makemusic on a violin of four strings, who, all of asudden, in the middle of a concert, finds himself withonly three strings; so he makes music with three strings, and the music he made that night with justthree strings was more beautiful, more sacred, morememorable, than any that he had ever made before, whenhe 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 isno longer possible, to make music with what we haveleft!!

Viv,
truly a wonderful post.
There is a saying which correctly reflects this............
"When life throws lemons at you make lemonade"

Pushpa