No children’s choir, no youth choir, no adult choir, no string orchestra, no Worship services, and no concerts. Jobless? Definitely not. All those activities being mentioned are only 10% of my job. The preparation work is 90% for usual church musician, for a newbie like me may be is 120%.
Life goes on as usual, only I have less stress and almost no appointment. Just an emergency meeting on how to deal with the corona situation. For example, how to provide worship without encourage people going out. I like the church bell policy the most to remind the whole town it’s time to worship at home.
Nobody know how long this social distancing policy will last. China took 2 months of lockdown to calm down the spreading of Coronavirus. The question is, should I practice for concert in the end of May? Definitely yes. It is neither about being optimist nor pessimist. The reason is as simply as, it is acceptable if the concert is cancelled because of Coronavirus, but it is in-acceptable if it is because of I have not prepared it.
Do I wish that I could know if it is being cancelled or not? I am not sure. This situation reminds me of a Japanese novel “Miracles of the Namiya General Store” that I read long time ago, I read the Chinese translated version.
An athlete was suffering in making decision to give up training or not for the Olympic games in year 1980. Her boyfriend had terminal illness, she wanted to be with him for the remains of his life, but he wished to see her playing sport. She wrote a letter about her sorrow and dropped it into the magic letter box, which received by the 3 robbers in future. The robbers could reply her letter through the magic letter box. They were thinking if they should tell her that Japan boycotted the 1980 Olympics, so that she could just stay with her boyfriend. I do not remember if they told her.
I am not sure, but it does not disturb me. I just keep practicing like normal just in case I need to play again, otherwise it will be too late. Even the little piece that I play during holy communion as background music require time to learn. I do not want to play the same piece for another 30 years, just in case I am doing the job for another 30 years.
The 100 meters sprint last only 9 to 10 seconds, but athlete train every day for years no matter there is a race to run or not. It will be just too late, if he wait until he is sure there is a race to run then start training.
I like that when my calendar have no trace for a moment.
P.S. Today I’m inviting you to pray for self-employed musicians. Suddenly no income for 2 months, but still have bills to pay, family to raise. My friends are crying now. Even if they can pay they bills, they are sad.
A telephone conversation with my former lecturer worth pondering. At the end of the phone call, I wish him to stay healthy. He replied:
“You know what, may be I’m still alive today is exactly because of I travel from place to place give concerts and lessons.” I am crying every time think of the call.
So if you have musician friends around you, show them your love, cheer them up. And do not say something like: “Nice, you can have corona-holiday now!” It hurts.