A lesson for me: you can have worries, yet make beautiful things. And the inspiration comes from Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), a composer who inspired music itself.
Not just me, Beethoven's life inspired another popular composer between 1898 and 1899, the Englishman Edward Elgar. Persist despite worries; here's what happened:
"'I was very down in the dumps; everything seemed to be going wrong. I was feeling very wretched... and told him (his friend Jaegar) I was going to give it all up and write no more music.' Jaegar had leapt to the defence: 'He said that Beethoven had a lot of worries, and did he give it all up? No. He wrote more, and still more beautiful music--"And-that-is-what-you-must-do"'" [Edward Elgar: A Creative Life]
"Jaeger... sang the theme of the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 Pathétique. Elgar disclosed to Dora (a close friend) that the opening bars of 'Nimrod' were made to suggest that theme. 'Can’t you hear it at the beginning? Only a hint, not a quotation.'" [wikipedia]
August Jaeger was Edward's close friend. They loved
Beethoven.
You can listen to Beethoven's second movement that inspired Edward as you read further.
Does it happen to you? A friend hums a song and you are taken into another world, your mood changes, you are inspired towards creativity? It happened to Edward Elgar, and he made one of the most popular works of music - Nimrod. It is decadently inspiring!
I do wish that Beethoven had lead a worry-free life. Is that not what we hope for people we admire? Or is peacefulness overrated? What you need is the fight to fight. To ask for courage to face the problems. Perhaps the problems themselves make life exciting.
I would like if after Beethoven, you listened to Edward's Nimrod in the video below. Consider it a gift to your self. Imagine a depressed man inspired by another man who lived in another era. Imagine the soaring feeling within Edward as he composed this music. Imagine the thrill. Imagine for it pleases the soul!
And know that we should have a friend like Jaeger in our life who can remind us of the glory of creative work, and who can tell us to persist despite worries.
"that-is-what-you-must-do"
