Monday, April 1, 2013

Relationships



Life is in a relationship with life.  What?

Everything that exists is in relationship …
~Husbands and wives
  ~Boss and employee
    ~Company and client
      ~Parent and siblings
        ~Stars and planets
          ~Earth and tides

            ~God and man

Even in music a relationship exists between notes, rhythm, balance, volume, tone and texture. 

Jack Canfield shares a great illustration about this in “Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive”.


“Once upon a time there was a manager who couldn’t use his concert tickets for Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony and gave them to his efficiency expert.  After the performance the manager received this report.

1.     For considerable periods, the four oboe players had nothing to do.  Their number should be reduced, and their work spread over the whole orchestra.
2.    Forty violins were playing identical notes.  This seems unnecessary duplication, and this section should be drastically cut.  If a larger volume of sound is required, this could be achieved through an electronic amplifier.
3.    Much effort was absorbed in the playing of demi/semi quavers.  This seems an excessive refinement, and it is recommended that all notes be rounded to the nearest semi-quaver.  If this were done, it should be possible to use trainees and lower-grade operators.
4.    No useful purpose is served by repeating with horns the passage that has already been handled by the strings.  If all such redundant passages were eliminated, the concert could be reduced to twenty minutes.  If Schubert had attended to these matters, he probably would have been able to finish his symphony after all.”


What a funny little piece of writing.  This makes me laugh as a human being, but as a musician I cringe.

What if I said to my wife, “Honey, on my wedding day I told you I loved you, and if I change my mind, I’ll let you know.”?  That might be efficient but hardly prudent for maintaining my marriage.  

Sometimes we need to shelve efficiency for good old fashioned time well-spent with someone just because they exist.  Relationships, like music, need the full spectrum of sights, sounds, emotional highs and lows, and resolutions of chords. 

You can’t strip down relationships to “do as I say, not as I do.”  You can’t ignore the human factor in relating to people. 

One book that touches on this idea is Getting Naked by Patrick Lencioni.  To whet your appetite, listen to this short video clip of Pat talking about this book. 






Bottom line – relationships need nurturing.


P Michael Biggs
Offering Hope
Encouragement Inspiration
One Word at a Time

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