I’m under no illusion that anything I’ve ever thought, said, or done hasn’t been thought, said, or done better by someone else. This is why we need art: to say the same things but better. It is also why I urgently need to learn more and different ways to express myself.

Thus, as I regularly am, I was reminded of Benjamin Zander’s TED talk. I’ve seen it many times. Typically, the message I take away is the Chopin performance. But, now, I was struck by what he said after. 

“Now, I had an amazing experience. I was 45 years old, I’d been conducting for 20 years, and I suddenly had a realization. The conductor of an orchestra doesn’t make a sound. (…) He depends, for his power, on his ability to make other people powerful.”

And then,

“I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people. And of course, I wanted to know whether I was doing that. How do you find out? You look at their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you’re doing it.”

I’ve thought and said that my work is to awaken possibility in other people’s lives, albeit never this forcefully, never this artfully. 

I wanted to keep it at that for now. I spent the weekend gardening and running, which was great, and finishing some overdue articles. Now, I’ll have to focus on numbers for a while, for a change.

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All the best,

— Jasper