Why I [heart] Blogging AND "The Music and the Mirror" - Donna McKechnie

A "why do you love blogging" meme, courtesy of Breakfast with Pandora. 

In high school and college, I always had another flute performance coming up.  I practiced for hours every day.*

After I graduated, I kept practicing.  I'd pick a piece, work it up to performance level, and...

Put it away again. 

I didn't have any musical outlet at the time.  The extroverted musicians among you are now saying that I needed to get out and find or make opportunities.  I was far shyer then than I am now, and that would have been way beyond me. 

I went on like that for a few years, but, eventually, my practicing slowed down.  I know I should play just for the love of it, and I still do, but to keep up the discipline of long, regular practice sessions, I need a purpose.  I hate the way that that sounds so goal-oriented, but a performer (even a shy one) needs to perform.  It doesn't have to be a fancy purpose - give me a simple choir accompaniment to work up, and I'll happily add Mozart or Prokofiev for my own enjoyment. 

For years, I've put ideas together in my head.  Not just thought through them - I've arranged them, introduced them, concluded them.  Basically, I was writing essays while gardening.  Why go through the effort of writing them down or typing them in?  All I would do is...

Put them away again. 

Actually, I did let them out a bit.  I would tell dear husband about them.  He's the one that, eventually, suggested I take up blogging because "You do that in your head, all the time, anyway!"

I still don't get to writing down every thing I come up with (aren't you lucky (grin)).  I've been putting this post together in my head all week, but didn't have a good time to write it. 

The first few months to a year that I blogged, I felt that I was just pretending there was an audience out there beyond friends and family.  I think it's grown larger than that, but I'm still amazed, and quite appreciative, that people read my blog.  I've never felt like much of a word person (posts about that here, here, and here (grin)), although I've always liked playing with ideas - musical ones, choreographical ones, and word-ish ones. Blogging inspired me to get a digital camera, and then I got to start playing with visual ideas also.  

Another part of what I love about blogging is the interaction with readers and other bloggers - on their blogs or mine.  There are so many different people to interact with - people interested in music, or gardening, or musicals, or books, or homeschooling, or photography, or writing about life in general. I've been feeling very isolated since my surgery, and blogging has helped.  I might have gone a little (more) nuts without it (grin).

Of course you get a song.  And dance - a wonderful performance by Donna McKechnie and a chorus of "The Music and the Mirror"** from "A Chorus Line:"

Give me somebody to dance for,
Give me somebody to show.
Let me wake up in the morning to find
I have somewhere exciting to go...
 
To have something that I can believe in.
To have something to be.
Use me... choose me...

God, I'm a dancer,
A dancer dances!..

 

 

Oh, and, when older son and daughter are at college, and I have too much energy which I shouldn't focus all on younger son because that wouldn't be kind to him - I'm going to go search out flute opportunities.  There's a flute association in Raleigh, and one of my former flute teachers is very involved...

*  At the NC School of the Arts, I practiced for 6 to 8 hours a day - on top of rehearsals. 

** We did this two years ago in Broadway dance - our teacher's choreography, which was very challenging.  The better my knee gets, the more I want to go back to dance and aerobics.   I've started doing some very simple aerobic and dance moves this week.  It's frustrating how slowly I have to do them because my knee is so stiff. 

Also, this week, when dear husband was out of town and two kids were sick, I realized that I want to go back, not only for the dance, but also for the social side.  Even an introvert needs to talk to other adults!

Comments

[Lisa]

I'm glad you blog. There are so many positives to the act of writing. It's self expression, it's creative, it's fun!

And I've been pleasantly surprised by the connections I've made with people from all over the world. It's an amazing and humbling thing.

[Lisa]

Thanks for taking off word verification! It makes commenting so much easier.

[Steve]

Time to tell secrets... Youngest isn't the only one who will not be best served by getting the full focus of your "brain the size of a planet." I'm also happy that you will have this blog and (undoubtedly) other things to occupy your restless mind.

And we LOVE getting your full concentrated focus often enough - just not too often. You know what I mean. You won't want me to focus too much on you after retirement, either.

[Steve]

Time to tell secrets... Youngest isn't the only one who will not be best served by getting the full focus of your "brain the size of a planet." I'm also happy that you will have this blog and (undoubtedly) other things to occupy your restless mind.

And we LOVE getting your full concentrated focus often enough - just not too often. You know what I mean. You won't want me to focus too much on you after retirement, either.