Some really nice kids

I’ve been fortunate in having many really fine young people as bassoon students. As a rule they have all been exceptionally polite, well-mannered, and hardworking kids. One of the favorite parts of my week include the times when I’m giving private lessons: it’s always a joy to pass on the love of playing bassoon to others. Of all the things I do, nothing gives me as much pleasure than playing – whether it be one on one with a student, playing chamber music, or performing a symphony. Late yesterday afternoon, one of my students called because he had a sudden conflict with his work schedule (he’s a high school kid and just obtained his first job) that prevented him from playing Beethoven’s First Symphony last night. He called me in order to fill in for him (it’s almost hard to believe that there are kids like him that are responsible enough to do such a thing) and I agreed as I really wasn’t doing much else. Besides the fact that I basically sat through the concert cold (in other-words, I hadn’t rehearsed with the group first), it was an enjoyable experience. What was so impressive; however, is that I had other students (it was an orchestra made up of high school kids) come up to me afterwards and thanked me for playing with them. I can’t tell you what a joy it was to find such a fine group of well-mannered young musicians. In this day and age of kids into punk rock, gross disrespect for others, and other narcissistic behaviors, having a kid come up to me just to say “thank you” was a breath of fresh air!

Praise God!

I seldom discuss my own religious beliefs on this board (yes, I believe in God and attend a Christrian Church on a regular basis) but today, I really must thank Him for the evil He stopped today. While I’m not going to go into the gory details of the matter on this blog, I will say that He protected me from some harm that was being perpitrated by an evil entity that has engaged in vile behavior towards me for a very long time. I would also like to thank all of those who have been praying for both me and the situation – these have included many people from my church, elders, support groups, friends, etc. Also my doctors and others who have been involved in the situation. Things remain very rough but I am extremely grateful to God for His grace, mercy, and protection. There are still many, many evil people out there who have caused all of the problems but I’m thankful that God protected me.