Comings and goings

There have been a lot of comings and goings in my life, home and studio this year. Son #1 moved home a year ago after having lived on his own for three years; he finished his last semester and graduated from college, got a job, and is now saving for a car and apartment while paying off school loans. Daughter #1 graduated from college two weeks ago (Daughter #2's account of that event is here), has a summer job in Marquette, Michigan and is apartment hunting in Milwaukee, where she'll be in grad school in the fall. Daughter #2 was home for three weeks following her first year of college, and last Monday we delivered her to Camp Onomia for a summer working as a camp counselor. Son #2 is the constant here at home, at least for the next three years.

In my studio, I've enjoyed an 'aging' of my students over the past couple years. More kids persevered through their middle school slump and went on to continue their music through high school. It's a hard age -- greater demands on their time from all sides -- homework, sports, activities, a first job. It's amazing that any of them continue their music study through the middle school minefield. The fun part for me as a teacher of middle and high school students is that I get to reap the benefits of all the investment of their early years. At this point, they know how to practice, they understand the cause and effect of time put in and beautiful music emerging. We're working on beautiful masterworks together. It's all good.

But it's hard to say goodbye when the seniors graduate. I had two seniors this year. One had studied with me since she was eight, the other just for the past three years. I loved working with them both, being able to transition from the role of teacher, guiding their every step and selecting every piece of repertoire, to that of coach and mentor, giving them independence, selecting repertoire together, guiding them to personal interpretations of the music based on their own depth of knowledge and musical experience.

I also said goodbye to a couple middle school students who sat with their parents, took an honest look at their commitments and dreams, and decided that their high school years would be focused on some dreams other than piano. As hard as it is to say goodbye to students who've been with me six years or more, I always respect and appreciate the intentionality of their decisions. Much better to go out on a high note, having put their best efforts into their final performances, than to slink out the back door feeling like they'd hung on six months too long.

So there's some room in the studio for a few new students this summer or fall. Or, perhaps there's room to downsize a little. Something to think about as I'm moving my own kids in and out.

The other day I was reading an interview in the "Smithsonian" with the great singer/songwriter Rosanne Cash. She talked a lot about her music...and theoretical physics. Little did I know that's a subject that absolutely fascinates her.

I don't know about you, but I would never call myself a science nerd. However over the years I've been searching for a way to dig deeper into science. I love the history of it, and I think it's eye opening stuff, I just rarely find books or essays that describe the wonders of it all in language that I understand.

It all just made me think: In the last few years I have been captured by these mind-boggling concepts brought up in physics and quantum mechanics. And this was only because of "Nova, C-Span, TED, "Bill Nye the Science Guy," and historical and personal journeys through science like "Parallel Universes, Parallel Lives." This was just me hearing people who were passionate about their life's work speak about it in a natural, engaging, and even humorous way. Why don't you see that very often any more? Why so many dry, dense books and scientists? Granted, I fully acknowledge that something as complicated as astrophysicss or quantum mechanics is not the easiest thing to explain to me, a nonlinear-thinking musician who Waaaaaay back during the baby years of science, there was a different approach to learning about it. There was a conscious link in everyone's minds between the fantastic unknown world and a certain spiritual reverence towards that unknown, and the beauty of it. It seemed you couldn't explain scientific ideas without the use of poetry. Speaking about this very subject, in a column in "The Guardian," Ruth Padel says, "Both [science and poetry] depend on metaphor, which is as crucial to scientific discovery as it is to lyric."

Parallel universes, time travel, aliens, black holes and wormholes: These are things that inspire science fiction,"A Wrinkle in Time," "Star Trek" and "Lost." They grab our attention and make us not-so-scientifically-inclined people to see beyond ourselves in a new context, and ponder how incredibly huge and mysterious our world is.

I will never become a scientist. But I like finding things that remind me that I am one piece of the jigsaw puzzle of the world. God does that for me, music, and I increasingly find that science also does that for me. It is humbling. I only hope that since more schools these days are focusing on math and science, that they are teaching it in a way that can inspire that same sense of awe, because I am lucky enough to have found a way for science to connect to me.

In this interview, Cash talked about a BBC documentary called "Parallel Universes, Parallel Lives." It follows the journey of Mark Everett, frontman of one of my favorite bands, Eels. In the film, he strives to understand more about his father, Hugh Everett, a Princeton professor and the scientist who is known for introducing the theory of parallel universes. Imagine being the kid of the guy who came up with the biggest scientific idea since Einstein and relativity--and not really caring about science at all. Needless to say there was tension between the two.

Graduation

This weekend I was in Ripon, Wisconsin--home of Rippin' Good Cookies! Birthplace of the
Republican Party!--to celebrate my sister Mari's graduation from Ripon College. It was a gorgeous two days, with plenty of sun, but no sunburn. And we realized that the neighboring town of Green Lake possesses--what?!--a lake! Which is gorgeous as well! And not green! I felt it a small injustice that the exact day before we lose any reason to return to Ripon and Green Lake, Wisconsin, that we finally discovered the lake. Ah well.

There were many pictures. My favorite was when my grandma was trying to take a nice picture of my sister and mom. Just moments previously, our family of American history buffs had suggested that we go visit the birthplace of the Republican Party just for kicks and giggles. It's a little white schoolhouse in the middle of town. All I said was, "Hey, wouldn't you rather have your picture taken at the Republican place?" And as the camera flashes, she makes this face:

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It was weird to think that in only three years from now, I will be the one graduating, probably overheating in a black robe, getting an awkward burn line on my forehead from a funny hat, and going on to do who-knows-what with my newly earned degree.

I inwardly cringe when I hear people say that college is four of the best years of your life. To me, that makes it sound as if your life hasn't started yet. But mine has been...for my whole life (shocker!). So I will cherish my time at college, but not forget that there are bigger and better things down the road that I can't even anticipate.

Freshman year of college: check.

Now I'm home to enjoy a few relaxing weeks with my family until I start work as a counselor at a Lutheran camp.After unpacking all my crap and realizing I have the potential to become an exceptional hoarder, I made a trip to the library. For fun. For the first time in a year.
Because what's summer without books? My plan is to have my nose in a book at all times, so as to make up for the many months of un-fun reading at college. I keep an obsessive list of all the books I've read, and it used to be that I could find the time to finish four or five a month. When I looked at what I had put under the year 2012, it read one lonely title, "Great House," by Allison Krauss. One book for the entire year so far.

This is truly a tragedy.

So, I started my atonement by picking up three books the other day: "Sacre Bleu," by Christopher Moore,

"Einstein's God," by the wonderful Krista Tippett,and "The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson." Since I don't have much time to totally immerse myself in Emerson's Trancendental philosophy, I'm going to narrow down "the essential writings" to the "absolute essential three essays," and save the rest for another summer.

I'm really enjoying the books I started, butI'm at the point where I get to the library and feel like I've read everything already, so new authors and story suggestions are welcome.

Along with the reading, I'm keeping up the piano stuff as well (because it's kind of why I'm in school). A Bach Partita, Mozart sonata, and a few Debussy preludes are on my rep list this summer and fall, which should be fun, and while I'm here I'm going to finish up some pieces I've been trying to write. Already my sister has commissioned me to write "a hymn to Isaac Newton and gravity," after being inspired by this video.



So we'll see how that goes.