Seeking Solomon #1
The Bible recounts stories of the great King Solomon, who, when offered a gift by God, asked for an understanding heart to judge God's people, wisdom and knowledge, and the ability to discern between good and evil. The alliterative name of this blog represents my pursuit of the wisdom that life offers each of us.
Beside my incredible family and wonderful friends, I have only a few real interests.
I love to run! Far. Really far. I discovered this only recently. I tried running far many years ago, but a few months before my first real long distance race (a half marathon, 13.1 miles), I stopped training to take a second job so we could save up for our first child, who was born the following spring. Eleven years later, I was quite overweight, my knees hurt constantly, and I hated how I looked at the pool. It took a close relative having a heart attack to kick-start my now healthy lifestyle. It's been a bit of a challenge figuring out how to balance everything I want out of my training and the other really important aspects of my life (my family, my career, etc.), especially coming out of teaching music for so long and taking on an entirely new set of challenges at work.
For my entire adulthood, music has been my profession. More specifically, teaching music had been what each day was all about. I love making music with my students! Everything from Mozart to Sousa to Zeppelin, music taught me more about what it means to be human than anything else I have experienced. Even in traveling across the US and Europe, nothing in my observations brings people closer together than music. I also enjoy the moment when students "get it" and from that point on, their lives are different; their lives are better. They perform more confidently, play more sincerely and I get to hear the notes on the page take on a life of their own. It's amazing! Performing music is equally satisfying. Currently, I play drums in a rock band band that is pretty in-demand, and we play close to 100 shows a year, all over the country. The transfer of energy from band to crowd and back is extremely powerful and I understand completely those who are addicted to the limelight!
As an educator, I am more convinced than ever that music and other art forms are the most important, and most overlooked components of a person's formal education. With increasing research supporting what arts education can do, there is no doubt in my mind that we have the relative importance of the major academic content areas completely backwards. The combination of right- and left-brain activity that music generates, the emotional and cognitive benefits of music and the arts, and the unifying effects of the arts on a society demonstrate not that music and the arts are not more important than math, literacy, science, and history, but they are as important.
For a long time, I thought I was interested in sports. Not exactly...It's competition that interests me. Sports was just the manifestation of that competition with which I connected. I played soccer through high school with some success and love watching the "beautiful game" with my family.
I have learned over the years I've spent as a music teacher that rapid progress in any area can be achieved through reflective writing. I hope that in this collection of thoughts I can navigate my life more wisely, more creatively, and more thoughtfully. It is something that I have preached to students for several years and finally have time to explore first hand.
