We went to Flushing, Queens for the first of several times this weekend for the beginning of a merging of families. We arrived not knowing how the evening would play out, planes landed and we walked through Chinatown, Koreatown, and stopped in the basement of a Hindu temple to try their famous canteen food. But at the end of the even, everyone was gathered in the basement of an AirBnB in Queens, across the street from Kissena Park, eating dosas, spicy soup, and pizza, enjoying two babies, and learning one another's names.
Tomorrow morning we head to City Hall.
Thursday, June 1, 2017
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Drizzly days
Spring is so wonderful. And the world is rainy right now. The trees get so dark and the flowers are so bright, and the smell of the dirt and blossoms is beautiful.
How strange to be living in New York and feel this way. Overwhelmed this morning on a run by the beauty of a community garden's irises and dozens of other blooming flowers. And again this even, by the newly turned dirt in the drizzle outside Barnard College.
My students are doing well, my family is arriving tomorrow, and more to come this weekend. Life is awake.....
How strange to be living in New York and feel this way. Overwhelmed this morning on a run by the beauty of a community garden's irises and dozens of other blooming flowers. And again this even, by the newly turned dirt in the drizzle outside Barnard College.
My students are doing well, my family is arriving tomorrow, and more to come this weekend. Life is awake.....
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Post-recital glow
It is quite easy for me to note the afterglow of a recital. I wonder what it is other than earned confidence. And I wonder if there is any other way to create that than by a recital situation. Students work hard, perhaps even get stressed, or even a little nervous, but then they learn that they can survive it. If it's a kind environment, they learn that their mistakes are not lethal, and by doing it with others, they strengthen their community and bonds with one another after going through it together.
Teaching after a recital is so much easier. Maybe I also learn more confidence as I wrote earlier. Maybe I have more trust as well. And the fact they they've practiced more intensely for the past week doesn't hurt either.
But I wonder if that is attainable in any other guise. Is there a way to teach that kind of confidence other than giving the space for it to happen? We can only grow through experience. Facts can be told and memorized, but this is a different kind of learning. And perhaps the best way to teach it is to facilitate it. Maybe more and more opportunities for this is the best I can do.
Teaching after a recital is so much easier. Maybe I also learn more confidence as I wrote earlier. Maybe I have more trust as well. And the fact they they've practiced more intensely for the past week doesn't hurt either.
But I wonder if that is attainable in any other guise. Is there a way to teach that kind of confidence other than giving the space for it to happen? We can only grow through experience. Facts can be told and memorized, but this is a different kind of learning. And perhaps the best way to teach it is to facilitate it. Maybe more and more opportunities for this is the best I can do.
Monday, May 29, 2017
Strand of Pearls
I have a strand of pearls that is too beautiful for the costume wholesale jewelry in the costume wholesale jewelry district of New York. I don't know that this district actual exists in name, but in practice it does, as does the Flower District which actually does exist that I also discovered today on my search.
Many things are closed today in observance of Memorial Day. But few of the places I wanted to go were. Probably the temptation of consumers with time to spend was too much. But it wasn't lost on me that most of the stores I stepped into were seeped in another culture, run by families or partners from other countries. What does this day mean to them?
The strand of pearls that I carried to measure against the color and timbre of other accessories, were from pre-WWII Japan. Authentic, carried home after service in that quadrant of the globe. Someone to be remembered.
It's difficult to avoid irony in New York. History and cultures are piled onto one another. Perhaps there is a deeper meaning to it. Or perhaps it is simply where we have been deposited after decades, centuries, millennia of humans being human.
Many things are closed today in observance of Memorial Day. But few of the places I wanted to go were. Probably the temptation of consumers with time to spend was too much. But it wasn't lost on me that most of the stores I stepped into were seeped in another culture, run by families or partners from other countries. What does this day mean to them?
The strand of pearls that I carried to measure against the color and timbre of other accessories, were from pre-WWII Japan. Authentic, carried home after service in that quadrant of the globe. Someone to be remembered.
It's difficult to avoid irony in New York. History and cultures are piled onto one another. Perhaps there is a deeper meaning to it. Or perhaps it is simply where we have been deposited after decades, centuries, millennia of humans being human.
Sunday, May 28, 2017
Memorial Day
Time is very different depending on whether you are standing in front or behind it. This occurred to me today as I was simply thinking about how I had projected the evening, and then how it lay after I had stepped through it.
This morning and early afternoon I gave only four lessons, but all were to students that had played in the recital yesterday. Recitals are great for a number of reasons, one of which is that it makes people practice that might not normally prioritize it. Just as it's possible to look forward to time and to look back on it, so too can we include people into this. I might project an expectation of an individual, or I might reflect on where they've been and how they've changed. We exist in this space, as do all the people around us, and to step away from our expectations and projections can feel very absurd. I reflect much less than I project, I think. What would it be to be without any expectation of another person? To be filled newly with them every time I see them? In this way it was very liberating to see straighter bows, higher knuckles, greater awareness than I had seen before in a certain individual.
Maybe this is why death can be so absurd. It locks us to the past. There is no more projection in our understanding of the person we loved, only memories to replay. I remember feeling this when I suddenly learned of someone's death, the feeling of time being severed. And this is perhaps what is magical about it as well: something to shake us to see a new order to time. What is tomorrow, what is yesterday? We are here, now.
This morning and early afternoon I gave only four lessons, but all were to students that had played in the recital yesterday. Recitals are great for a number of reasons, one of which is that it makes people practice that might not normally prioritize it. Just as it's possible to look forward to time and to look back on it, so too can we include people into this. I might project an expectation of an individual, or I might reflect on where they've been and how they've changed. We exist in this space, as do all the people around us, and to step away from our expectations and projections can feel very absurd. I reflect much less than I project, I think. What would it be to be without any expectation of another person? To be filled newly with them every time I see them? In this way it was very liberating to see straighter bows, higher knuckles, greater awareness than I had seen before in a certain individual.
Maybe this is why death can be so absurd. It locks us to the past. There is no more projection in our understanding of the person we loved, only memories to replay. I remember feeling this when I suddenly learned of someone's death, the feeling of time being severed. And this is perhaps what is magical about it as well: something to shake us to see a new order to time. What is tomorrow, what is yesterday? We are here, now.
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Student Recital Reflection
Today was another cello recital for all my New York students. They are getting better and better at these recitals and it's really gratifying to see the growth that has happened in only a few months time. I ask them all to write reflections and wish that I could share them, but have made a deal that they are confidential. However, my reflection for this recital is that as a teacher, I am coming to trust that people can change and grow. It's one thing to endeavor for myself to learn new things, but when I see another person changing from what we have worked on together, it's uniquely special.
What does trust, or faith, lend us?
In being more trustful of my students' ability, perhaps it means that I don't need to push harder than they can actually absorb. Maybe it means that I will judge them less and observe them more. In giving them the time that it takes for them to naturally grow, I will be less likely to hurt their self-confidence, or to instill fear or doubt in themselves in the learning process. Knowing that it will happen, I can feed them what is needed, but not overburden them with my own fears of progress.
As a growing teacher, I think this is where I would like to become more full. To be more and more trustful, more and more observant, and more giving for what can take them to the next step in their own time and space.
What does trust, or faith, lend us?
In being more trustful of my students' ability, perhaps it means that I don't need to push harder than they can actually absorb. Maybe it means that I will judge them less and observe them more. In giving them the time that it takes for them to naturally grow, I will be less likely to hurt their self-confidence, or to instill fear or doubt in themselves in the learning process. Knowing that it will happen, I can feed them what is needed, but not overburden them with my own fears of progress.
As a growing teacher, I think this is where I would like to become more full. To be more and more trustful, more and more observant, and more giving for what can take them to the next step in their own time and space.
Friday, May 26, 2017
Musicambia
Some of my friends are involved with an organization called Musicambia. It connects some of New York's top musicians with prisoners so that they can benefit from the power of learning an instrument, playing with others, and composing their own music. Tonight we went to their gala where we heard some professional musicians play their works, heard some of the alums of the program play, and also got to hear their words about the power of music.
Watching them speak, it was hard to imagine that they had ever committed any crime. How often do we interact with a person that we know spent time in jail? It's not information that gets openly shared. Nor do our society circles overlap that often. One of the men speaking said he had spent 20 years in prison. Through Musicambia he had gotten involved in other programs, had gone to college, and is now enrolled to go to Columbia in the fall for Social Work.
It's not often enough that music is such an agent for connecting communities in such a positive way. Nor is it's potency so keenly felt. Musicians are aware of its transformative ability, but do we really believe that it can bring about this kind of change?
It's wonderful to see and experience this kind of good. People growing beyond what they had been labeled, or remembering other possibilities for themselves. In what other ways can we help transform our world?
Watching them speak, it was hard to imagine that they had ever committed any crime. How often do we interact with a person that we know spent time in jail? It's not information that gets openly shared. Nor do our society circles overlap that often. One of the men speaking said he had spent 20 years in prison. Through Musicambia he had gotten involved in other programs, had gone to college, and is now enrolled to go to Columbia in the fall for Social Work.
It's not often enough that music is such an agent for connecting communities in such a positive way. Nor is it's potency so keenly felt. Musicians are aware of its transformative ability, but do we really believe that it can bring about this kind of change?
It's wonderful to see and experience this kind of good. People growing beyond what they had been labeled, or remembering other possibilities for themselves. In what other ways can we help transform our world?
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