“This gorgeous Hälssen & Lyon calendar is made of brewable tea. Each day is made of fine pressed wafer thin tea leaves.”
this is too good to be true; right?
You’ve prepared day after day for hours on end, to the point that it may have amounted to a year’s worth of work––if not more. You know what you want to say, how you want to say it, when to pause, when to grow in dramaticism and when to lower your voice to a soft hush, when to pull out the elaborate phrases with elegant lines and when to use nothing more than a few short words, and you know what you want the outcome to be: a perfect delivery, and a perfect reception by the listener, so that the audience member will yell “bravo!” and the girl will tell you that she reciprocates those very feelings.
But performances never go perfectly. From the moment the piece begins, the arms begin trembling, fingers lose their grip, sweat lubricates the skin, breath becomes short and choppy; everything that was worked out in the safe laboratory environment of a practice room (or whatever room) is sucked out and replaced by adrenaline and whatever other chemicals and hormones and such come into play for situations like these. Memory slips happen, stutters and stumbles run wild and free, and phrases that were worked out for hours can be jumbled up with out of tune or missing notes, and none of it can be taken back.
The delivery will never be perfect, but all that the performer can hope to do is to convey the heart of the piece, and all that the professing young man can do is hope to convey the sincerity and intentions of his own heart, in hopes that the heart will shine so brightly, dig so deeply, and ring so truly that no mistake could detract from it, no matter how egregious.
In Christ, God is not an all or nothing God. He knows our frame. He covers our sin. He is pleased with our successes through faith, and patient with our failures. So know him in his patience, all you struggling saints. Let this knowledge encourage you: You are walking in the way that pleases him – do so still more and more.
(via eileenyweeny)
Titanium on Kazoo
all the work i put in the practice room is meaningless. time to change my major to something more powerful and true, like these true musicians.
This is taped to the office door of my school’s band director. Creative and rather accurate, music majors will confirm.
Due to my aspiration for a coolness equal to that obtained by Stuff Christians Like, Im going to talk about a not-often-discussed but very important event for all UCLA male (and those females with…I’ve been told today is Shorts Day, so linking to the original post seems appropriate.
