But then when we don't get immediate relief, an absurd situation kicks in : we devote all our attention on our illness and choose to ignore the part of us that is still well.
This surely is the way to live : to concentrate on living to best of our ability. This focuses on the quality of life not the depression of illness.
It's an accepted fact that we are going to die, yet I don't believe in British (maybe Western) society we really take this on board and accept the reality that this involves illness or malfunctioning of one kind or another.
Wouldn't our attitude to our life be turned upside down if instead, we concentrated on living rather dying. If something came along that stopped us living in a certain way our immediate reaction could be to look for another way of living instead.
Bartok's Third piano Concerto was performed last week at the proms.
Wikipedia tells us:
Béla Bartók died at age 64 in a hospital in New York City from complications of leukemia (specifically, of secondary polycythemia) on September 26, 1945. His funeral was attended by only ten people. Among them were his wife Ditta, their son Peter, and his pianist friend György Sándor (anon. 2006).
In 1945, Bartók composed his Piano Concerto No. 3, a graceful and almost neo-classical work. He began work on his Viola Concerto, but had not completed the scoring at his death.
This means that with less than nine months to live, knowing he had leukemia, he chose to compose as much as he was able, even though he was without many friends, in a country - the USA - that hadn't accepted him when he had rejected the Nazi regime and left his native Hungary.
"The first symptoms of his health problems began late in 1940, when his right shoulder began to show signs of stiffening. In 1942, symptoms increased and he started having bouts of fever, but the disease was not diagnosed in spite of medical examinations. Finally, in April 1944, leukemia was diagnosed, but by this time, little could be done (Chalmers 1995, 202–207).
As his body slowly failed, Bartók found more creative energy, and he produced a final set of masterpieces, partly thanks to the violinist Joseph Szigeti and the conductor Fritz Reiner (Reiner had been Bartók's friend and champion since his days as Bartók's student at the Royal Academy). Bartók's last work might well have been the String Quartet No. 6 but for Serge Koussevitsky's commission for the Concerto for Orchestra. Koussevitsky's Boston Symphony Orchestra premièred the work in December 1944 to highly positive reviews. Concerto for Orchestra quickly became Bartók's most popular work, although he did not live to see its full impact. In 1944, he was also commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin to write a Sonata for Solo Violin."
The Concerto for Orchestra is one of my favorites - imagine life without it!
For me at the age of 76 this is an amazing story. I am aware that month by month I am in decline yet rather than focus on this frustrating situation I can make the choice of focusing on living to the full as far as I am able:
by reminding myself of this more positive way of thinking.
by attempting to compose on the piano as well. . . . .
by writing my thoughts on a blog.
by aiming to win at chess on a Tuesday evening until midnight.
And so forth with many very enjoyable activities involving people of all kinds
However putting the above basic philosophy into practice is tough with two and maybe even three of my close friends affected.
Scary stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment