He was a brilliant conductor, but I soon found out, one, who could not handle authority.
Every time he was asked to speak with the committee about music or concerts, he felt he was being insulted or humiliated. “They need information about costs and funds,” I told him, “they are the committee!” “They treat me shabbily,” he said.
I didn’t see any such shabby treatment and told him he needed to pull himself together and handle the members of the committee just as he so brilliantly handled the nuances of the choral music and brought out the best in the choir, but sadly he never listened and finally left.
“It’s his past,” I was told later, “there were times at the beginning of his career and even during his childhood when he was slighted and treated badly, and his feelings against any form of authority just have not gone away.”
“But he is much older now,” I said simply. “And what an opportunity he’s missed just because he could not get rid of his dead parts!”
I am discovering that many people want, above all else, to live life fully. But sometimes the past prohibits our living and enjoying life to the utmost in the present.
A schoolteacher entered his room a few minutes early and noticed an earthworm laboriously crawling along the floor. It had somehow been injured. The back part of the worm was dead and dried up, but still attached to the front living part by just a thin thread.
As the teacher studied the strange sight of a poor worm pulling its dead half across the floor, a little girl ran in and noticed it there. Picking it up, she said, “Oh, Oscar, when are you going to lose that dead part so you can really live?”
What a marvellous question for all of us! When are we going to lose that dead part so we can really live?
When are we going to let go of past pain so we can live fully?
When are we going to drop the baggage of needless guilt so we can experience life?
When are we going to let go of that past resentment so we know peace?
Like I said, he was probably the best conductor I had seen in awhile. Brilliant with his interpretation and also blessed as a composer but till he gets rid of his dead parts he was like that earthworm, will continue dragging anger, resentment and hurt along.
Take a look at yourself, quite often your reactions to others is a dead giveaway to what you have to throw away. Are you dragging something that is dead along? And if you are, are you willing to get rid of that dead part either through discipline or prayer and really start living?
Start doing so right now..!
—bobsbanter@gmail.com
