Well, today was a lot of fun. My family all went to the South Dakota Symphony concert. It so rocked! And yes I am a huge dork, but we already knew that. During the first half of the concert there was a guest soloist, Sarah Chang. She is so totally awesome! She's been playing since she was four years old. And she played all three movements plus encore without music. And the way she played! She was way into her music and moved with it. But she moved so fast! It was insane. It was like someone had filmed her and sped up the tape. But no, that's just how fast she is. I so wish I could play like her. During intermission I bought one of her CD's and she signed it. Woot! Then in the second half of the concert they played Pictures at an Exhibition and invited area artists to set up in the wings and paint while they played. My mom was one of them and she had a blast doing it. She painted eggs and baby chicks for the movement Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks. She also paited the orchestra itself during rehearsal including my old teacher Dr. Brawand. So on the whole, the concert was truly awesome.
And now for the theoretically profound part of the post. As I watched the concert and listened to the awesome sounds I was filled with a sort of sadness. It's been a year now since I've played in a real orchestra. I miss it. When you play in an orchestra, a good orchestra, you are driven to become better. When you are off by yourself you tend to level off. I think that part of the problem is that there is no tangible goal to work toward. With an orchestra, there's always another concert coming up. You get your music, you rehearse as a group, you work on things on your own--all the while looking toward the culmination of these things in a spectacular musical performance. Well, best case scenario. The point is, that alone it's hard to grow and progress. Working closely with a teacher helps, of course, but in my personal experience I've always improved the most when presented with a challenge in a group setting. It strikes me as being like the Christian life. It can't be done properly alone. A Christian without fellowship is like a violinist without an orchestra. "As iron sharpens iron," and all that. When they play together, musicians get better; when they pray together, Christians are encouraged and strengthened to do what they must. It seems pretty basic to me. And a Christian who isn't serving is like a violinist who isn't performing. I mean, what's the point? These endeavors are not to be undertaken selfishly. The point of making music is to share it with others, and the point of living in this world as a Christian is the same: to share it with others. I think some of us (me included) are just too used to it. We have forgotten that not everyone is a Christian, that not everyone has the same peace we have. Again, I will compare this to my violin. Something struck me recently about playing the violin: not everyone can play the violin. I know, very profound. ;) But there is a point here. I always thought it rather amusing when people (especially guys for some reason) got excited when they heard I played the violin. I always think to myself, yeah, it's no big deal I've always played the violin, there's nothing special about playing the violin. It was just one of my attributes: I have brown hair, I need glasses, and I play the violin. Wait, the first two I don't have a choice about, the last one I definitely have had to be proactive about. And it's the same with Christianity. When we've been saved long enough, we're tempted to forget that we ever weren't. To think that being Christian is just something we have, like our hair color. But it's not. It's a gift and a mission. We should not forget that.
Okay, now that I've alienated or confused everyone who reads this, I'll wrap things up for the night.
God bless.
-Kim
