Sabbatical
Greetings,
Vienna, the capital of Austria, is home to a number of opera houses. It is also where 'Vienna Philharmonic', an orchestra considered one of the finest, is based.
Each member of the 'Vienna Philharmonic' has had to undergo a lengthy selection process, wherein they have consistently displayed excellence for at least a period of three years.
Vienna is the first city I have visited since the beginning of the pandemic last year. I could not imagine how excited I would get. But my excitement quickly dampened when I saw deserted streets amidst a lockdown.
Nothing was open. No restaurants, no shops, no theatres, no nothing! I always wondered how musicians cope with times like these. Lack of performances due to closed theatres would surely make them a bit rusty. A friend of mine who is a violinist with the New York Philharmonic said that they just practice in their living rooms. With no one listening, except maybe family members or lucky neighbours, he said it is ok to miss a note. There is no pressure whatsoever.
This is something like my writing. When I started writing almost a year ago, I wasn't looking for an audience, but of course hoping that the number of readers would multiply week over week. When evidence of exponential growth failed to materialize, I had to remind myself what my main goal was - To utilize my new found time to achieve clarity in my thoughts and to improve on my new found interests - Writing.
If the writing was not the best, to put it mildly, there would be no harm done. The few who would read it would abandon the article midway. Those who read the entire article would forget about it within moments. But it would not leave an indelible mark anywhere.
Now I am back to work, flying planes. To be more specific, flying an Airbus 380 which is capable of transporting over 600 people non-stop across continents. The only difference between now and pre-pandemic is the number of people travelling. Yesterday there were a measly 45 passengers in the plane! That is not even 10% capacity. The crew complement of 30, made it 1 crew member for every 1.5 passenger!
So is that similar to performing to no audience? Same as writing something which could be hit or miss, and no one would care if it was a miss?
Flying airplanes is immensely joyful and fun. But with that comes an inherent problem of being an unforgiving profession. Each performance has to be within certain strict parameters. Anything beyond the limits and no matter how large or how small the audience, the entire world will know about it. The media will discuss it for days. The damage caused will be significant.
Whether it is music or writing or flying, repetitions and practice helps master the skill. It is only when it comes to flying planes it is difficult to mess up and say, "no harm done".
It has been over a year since I flew planes on a regular basis. Now once again, I have to make sure to correctly dot the I's cross the T's. There can be no misstep or missed notes. The goal is to repeatedly display consistent excellence.
Human nature is such that it all comes back quickly. But until my hands are well set on the controls, that is where my focus will lie. Writing will have to take a break until then. So I will be away for a few weeks but when I return I hope to have some fun stories to share.
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Stay well and see you soon.
Evian
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