What my violin taught me about awe, purpose and the power in taking a chance

As a parent of a daughter who loves baseball more than anything else, we are letting her passion guide her, even though it is a remote possibility she will become the professional baseball player she wants to be. The opportunities that are opening up for her, and the life skills and lessons she is learning wouldn't have the same impact if we were trying to steer her in a direction that wasn't of her choosing. The lesson she has learned early, and one I wish I had learned earlier, is if the worst thing that can happen is someone will say "no" then there is no reason not to try.

If you aren't familiar with the "Bach Double", the work she mentions performing with Joshua Bell, it's the Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043. She writes about the transcendent feeling of playing the second movement. I've always regarded it too as one of Bach's finest slow movements. Worth a listen.

The mother had a chance to succeed with her proposal to meet the violin teacher because other mothers or fathers or future students did not show up at the teacher's door to talk about their children, in the case of parents, or themselves, in the case of students. If, in this particular case, more people followed the "why not" strategy of the students' mothers, soon there would be forms to fill out to meet the famous teacher, or only the option of ambushing them when they eat breakfast.

Although this is a different case, it reminded me of the evolutionarily stable strategy of hawks and doves.

> I realized that what I missed most about playing the violin was that it had given me a vehicle for connecting emotionally with others.

That is a great way to explain why I have interest in certain hobbies as well.