----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Bennett" <[log in to unmask]> To: "'Everyone'" <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Sunday, August 06, 2006 7:42 AM Subject: 4 Strings > Dear ones, > > May our lives be an example of what God can do with what time remains... > > Bless you, > > Bill > =================================================================== > > Subject: 4 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 unforgettable 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. > > People who were there that night thought to themselves: "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, > recomposing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was > de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them 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 boastfullly, 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 [way] 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. > > Jack Riemer,Houston Chronicle > > Just think what we can do with all 4 strings! > > > > > > > >