May 2005

May 13, 2005 09:16

With all the excitement about the upcoming Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, my thoughts have been drawn more and more to the similarities between Jedi and Violinists.

Mind you, I'm not a rabid Star Wars fan; I would't be caught dead in a costume (even though I did buy a working R2D2 robot for the fun of it).

In any case, the similarities between Violinists, Jedi, and Zen Masters is uncanny.

The connection between The Force and Zen has already been discussed elsewhere (e.g., http://www.scifidimensions.com/Jun01/forcetaobutterfly.htm and http://www.exn.ca/starwars/taoism.cfm ) but I don't know if anyone has expounded on the relationship between Zen and the Violin.

I wonder if there's a book out there about this? "Zen and the Art of Violin Playing," perhaps?

Anyway, enough rambling. Without further ado, here are my

Top Ten Jedi Quotes for Violinists

10. "Be patient." -Obi-Wan Kenobi

9. "You must unlearn what you have learned." -Yoda

8. "Your insight serves you well." -Obi-Wan Kenobi

7. "Stretch out with your feelings." -Obi-Wan Kenobi

6. "Don't center on your anxiety... Keep your concentration here and now where it belongs." -Qui-Gon Jinn

5. "Control, control. You must learn control." -Yoda

4. "Let go." -Obi-Wan Kenobi

3. "Quiet your mind." -Qui-Gon Jinn

2. "Concentrate on the moment. Feel. Don't think. Use your instincts." -Qui-Gon Jinn

...and of course, the piece de resistance...

1. "If you choose the quick and easy path, you will become an agent of evil." -Yoda

Haha. Just kidding! Actually, it's --

1. "Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try." -Yoda

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May 11, 2005 10:05

On May 3, 2005 at exactly 9:41pm, my grandfather died. He was 85.

When he sent me off to learn the violin he would tell me how, as a young boy before the War, he would play hooky whenever it was time for music lessons.

As a result, he said, he was the only one among eight siblings who did not know how to play any instrument. He regretted it ever since, he would tell me, joking that all he knew to do was whistle.

Nevertheless, he had a very sharp ear. Even clear across the house, he could tell when I was playing off-key.

My appreciation for the violin deepened as I grew older, and I am thankful for my grandfather's gift of music.

I owe everything to him, even the very violin that I now use. He brought it home from a visit to the US in 1987, even though I was still too small to use it.

In his last years, when he listened to me play, he would often tell me how glad he was that he brought the violin home.

On the plane trip, he said, he carried the instrument in his hands and never let go of it --not even during his brief stopover in Japan (which he felt very uncomfortable about, having been a POW during the War).

He would laugh as he recalled this, saying that, perhaps, fellow travelers thought he was a violinist. If only they knew!, he would say, and laugh again.

Thank you, Papa.

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