A Story For You

I'm going to tell you a story about Camille Saint-Saens. He was a musician and composer that was born in October of 1835. Early in life he became aware of his extreme musical abilities. And when I say "early in life" I mean he wrote his first piano composition when he was three and a half.

When he was 50, Saint-Saens was vacationing in a small village in Austria when he wrote the masterpiece "The Carnival of the Animals" or "Le Carnaval Des Animaux". It is an epic fourteen part symphony that he wrote chronicling a trip to the zoo. He included movements like "The Swan", "The Elephant", and "The Aquarium".

Each part is distinctly its own, conjuring up its very own, sometimes quite comical, image in your mind. For instance, the movement entitled, "Tortues" or "Tortoises" plays what you might know as the "can-can" only slowed down very dramatically. And for "The Elephant" Saint-Saens took what would normally be a high pitched, fast paced song and had it played on the bass, slowly and lethargically.

After one small performance of the symphony for his friends he forbade it to be played while he was still living. He wanted to be taken seriously as a composer and felt this would hurt his reputation. If I remember correctly, "The Swan" is the only movement he allowed to be played during his lifetime.

I find it terribly interesting, watching history repeat itself so sinuously while no one seems to be noticing. This reminds me an awful lot of all the musicians and artists out there putting their fun, free, and truly creative sides behind them as they attempt to be taken "seriously" in the modern, adult world. What's even better, is that this is a sterling example of how wrong of an idea this is! Le Carnaval Des Animaux is one of Camille Saint-Saens most known, and acclaimed works.

People seem to think that there are two parts to the human brain: 1) The eternal child. The part of you that would rather just play hooky for the day and go to the movies. The part of you that would rather write or read or paint or play xbox all day long. We tend to suppress this part of our minds as we age thinking that we must forego what is fun for what is expected of us. 2) The adult. The part of you that knows that life isn't fun and games. The part that makes you wake up every morning, have a cup of coffee, read the newspaper, and go to work. The part that "gets the job done", so to speak.

I think this kind of proves my theory that you can merge your two selves into one, equal state of being. Just do what you're good at and as long as that's not selling crack on street corners you are probably going to be very successful. And even better than successful you can be happy. That elusive little title that everyone wants, and so few achieve.

I hope you are doing what makes you happy. Goodnight, all.