My music season has finally wrapped up: what a year, a real blast, full of surprises and novelties. Part of me wants to rest one day and then launch into next season straight away, but the wiser (and pretty exhausted) part of me says “Whoa there, how ‘bout some serious down-time?”.
As if on cue, to save me from myself, the 2024 Paris Olympics have begun, and folks, I am a longtime fan of the Olympic Games!
It’s not just that I was pretty sporty as a kid (I attended a track and field meet for my 10th birthday), and that I have a long memory of Olympic highlights (Nadia Comaneci’s groundbreaking score of a perfect 10, Mark Spitz’s 7 gold medals), tragedies (Munich, 1972), and dramas (Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding). Nor that I spent too many hours in my youth splayed on the carpet watching TV…and the Olympics is great TV.
It’s that I find the Olympics so incredibly inspiring: the athletes’ back-stories, their abilities, dedication, stamina, determination, and their equanimity in the face of disappointment. So many lessons there for us musicians!
You might even say that these athletes—like us?—have dedicated themselves to perfecting useless skills. Well, I wouldn’t say it to their face, but you know, no one actually needs to be able to flip and twist as they fall off a 30-foot board into a pool. Not VERY often, in any case! Just like no one needs to play the flute…
So (not counting the slight possibility of fame and glory and riches…) what’s the point of it? (A therapist once asked me “what’s the point" of my daughter learning the cello…I was aghast. I wish I had replied: “what is the point of living without learning to play the cello?”
Because we can. Because we’re human. Because we strive. Because (to quote a book by Glennon Doyle I’ve not yet read) “we can do hard things”.
And because it’s BEAUTIFUL.
Ok, sports is supposedly not “about” aesthetics. But it is there anyway—because we humans do value beauty (even if some don’t want to admit it… yeah, yeah, go to law school…).
I’ve just watched Simone Biles nail all four rounds to qualify for the finals in gymnastics. Aesthetics are present everywhere in her performance: the exuberance, the clean lines, the gestures her body makes as it flies, nay, SOARS across the arena…Also the theatrical outfits (hate to admit, but the Swarovski gems looks amazing), the hair, the makeup. With Simone Biles—and all her competitors—we have a total expression of the beauty of the human form in movement.
On the other hand, there is the incredible training involved, quite similar to that of musicians. Years upon years of discipline and preparation. It is hard, and we humans can do it.
And yet—they also “hit wrong notes”; a hand misses the bar and suddenly, the extreme difficulty of what they do is laid bare. They—these OLYMPIANS!—wobble a bit on that hideous, sweaty-palm-inducing 4-inch balance beam; they overstep the edge of the floor after a tumbling series of double whatevers.
Can we not agree that these moments make them more human? Giving us a better sense of the courage needed to go out there and perform, knowing it might not go perfectly, in spite of years of training? While the perfect routine is truly something to behold, not even Simone Biles reaches perfection—it’s an ideal, a direction, not a destination. When I watch, these “errors” only increase my appreciation of their abilities, inspiring me to aim high myself.
As I’m taking a well-deserved break, I’m going to cheer every athlete on, cry with them when things go south, cry in joy when they nail it. It’s all good. It’s all human. And when I get back in the saddle, soon enough, I’m going to give the same cheering and joy to myself, my colleagues, my students—no matter what. We are human.
Women’s Gymnastics Team Final is on July 30th; the Women’s All-Around Finals are on August 1st. I’ll be watching and rooting for every single athlete! (But especially, I admit, for Simone!)
If you'd like to download this free inspirational poster (PDF) I made featuring Simone Biles, click here. Happy summer, everyone!
