LIFE'S LESSON: PAGANINI AND ONE STRING
"Life is like a cup of coffee,
Niccolo Paganini, a colourful and gifted violinist of the
nineteenth-century was standing before a packed house, playing through a
difficult piece of music. A full orchestra surronded him with full
support. Suddenly, one string on his violin snapped and hung
gloriously down from his instrument.
Beads of perspiration popped out of his forehead. He frowned but
continued to play, improvising beautifully. To the conductor's
surprise, a second string broke. And shortly after, a third. Now
there were three limpstrings dangling from Paganini's violin as the
master performer completed the difficult composition on the remaining
one string. The audience jumped to its feet and in good Italian fashion
filled the hall with shouts of "Bravo! Bravo!"
As the applause died down, the violinist asked the people to sit back
down. Even though they knew there was no way they could expect an
encore, they quietly sank back to their seats. He held the violin up
high for every one to see. He nodded at the conductor to begin the
encore and then turned back to the crowd. With a twinkle in his eye,
he smiled and shouted, "Paganini and one string!"
After that he placed the single-string Stradivarius beneath his chin
and played the final piece on one string as the audience shook their
heads in silent amazement.
Our life may very well be filled with troubles, worries,disappointments
and what not. Frankly, we spent most of the time concentrating and
fretting over the strings that snap, dangle and pop - the things that
can't be changed!
Are you still agonizing over your snapped strings in life? Is the one
string that you are left with being played out of tune? If so, may I
encourage you to look not back, press on, and start playing the single
string again. Let it yield a sweet, winesome melody that the world
needs so desperately. You can if you will.
Sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet,
Important thing is who you drink it with."