THE MOST DIFFICULT INSTRUMENT TO PLAY
Do you know what is the hardest instrument in the orchestra to play?
The hardest instrument to play is second fiddle. While all the rest of the instruments have their own sections, the violins are divided into two parts - "first" and "second" violins.
First violins are often the stars of the show. They get the melody lines. They get to show off. They sit next to the audience.
Back behind, where they are hard to see, are the second violins. They play a supporting role. They play harmony to the first violins.
Theirs is a service role. Their job is to round out the sound of the other instruments. They serve the orchestra. They do what is not glamorous so that the whole will be beautiful. Without the second violins, the orchestra would sound incomplete.
You know what the hardest role to play in life is? Second fiddle. To play second fiddle is to play a supporting role for someone else. And it is sometimes a service role; doing what is not glamorous, usually behind the scenes, so that the whole can be more beautiful.
The late Leo Buscaglia, that effervescent educator, speaker, author, and lover of life, used to tell his university students that there is a world out there dying to be loved! He challenged his students to love and often told them that serving others is the way they can find such things as happiness and joy.
He sometimes told about Joel. Leo got Joel hooked on serving. He took him to a nursing home and said, "You see that woman sitting over there? I want you to go and introduce yourself to her."
Joel was not looking forward to his nursing home visit. But he nevertheless went to the stranger and introduced himself. She looked at him skeptically and asked, "Are you one of my relatives?"
Joel answered, "No, I'm not."
And she said, "Good. I hate my relatives. Sit down, son, and talk to me." He did and they talked.
He went back the next week. And the next. They developed a close friendship and Joel soon looked forward to his visits. He learned something about the joy of serving. About working behind the scenes. About playing second fiddle. And he made one woman's world a little more beautiful.
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This one struck a cord with me. A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away, my now ex-wife had just moved in with me with her (and another guys) 6 month old son. She liked watching Kenneth Copeland on TV. I did with her but didn't pay much attention. Well he was having a motorcycle rally in TX (the second one). She talked me into going, in those days I was pretty proud of what I could do and not a christian. Well, we borrow a pickup from my folks and they will watch Evan, I've got the basics for camping so off we go. It was a cold night and the next morning I'm out trying to get my old coleman stove going to make coffee and cook breakfast, ex was hiding under the covers. Finally get it going and coffee made and I noticed that some of the campers around us had some decent camping setups. No big deal, mine was rigged for me and my sprorty. Had a leather vest with a patch on the back (no clubs) that, let's say wasn't christian. We head up for the first service and there are several folks standing around a coffee pot waiting for it to finish. I walk up and find myself talking to former Hells Angles, etc. Cool, I ride but never wanted to join a club, always got my ass in enough trouble on my own, didn't need any help. I make it through that service and we head back to camp. I'm working on a few things when a lady from the camp next to us walks up and introduces herself. We talk for a bit and then she ask me what I did for a living, I said 'I'm a broadcast engineer for the Univeristy of XX Journalism School'. She said really what do? I said 'I keep all of the equipment running for the broadcast and audio production working'. She said 'Oh your a fix it guy'. Well let's just say that went all over me. I said 'Well I maintain a 3 camera video production and news facility, we have 3 audio production areas and also bring in local bands and produce master tapes for them, we have Radio News and a Newsroom and I make sure all of the equipment works'. She said 'Ok your a fix it guy' smiled and walked off. That didn't set well with me, I'm thinking, lady I take $40,000.00 video cameras and put them on my workbench and find the 20 cent resistor that was bad. I fumed around for a while and kept thinking about it. Then it finally hit me, I was thinking pretty highly of myself and I was just a 'fix it guy'.
Second Fiddle.
My job was to make the professors and students look good. There were times when a prof or student would ask 'what do you do?' I would say 'fix it guy'. They would look at me with a weird look and say 'you keep all of this up and running and you call yourself a 'fix it guy'. I always said 'That's what I do'.
The hardest instrument to play is second fiddle. While all the rest of the instruments have their own sections, the violins are divided into two parts - "first" and "second" violins.
First violins are often the stars of the show. They get the melody lines. They get to show off. They sit next to the audience.
Back behind, where they are hard to see, are the second violins. They play a supporting role. They play harmony to the first violins.
Theirs is a service role. Their job is to round out the sound of the other instruments. They serve the orchestra. They do what is not glamorous so that the whole will be beautiful. Without the second violins, the orchestra would sound incomplete.
You know what the hardest role to play in life is? Second fiddle. To play second fiddle is to play a supporting role for someone else. And it is sometimes a service role; doing what is not glamorous, usually behind the scenes, so that the whole can be more beautiful.
The late Leo Buscaglia, that effervescent educator, speaker, author, and lover of life, used to tell his university students that there is a world out there dying to be loved! He challenged his students to love and often told them that serving others is the way they can find such things as happiness and joy.
He sometimes told about Joel. Leo got Joel hooked on serving. He took him to a nursing home and said, "You see that woman sitting over there? I want you to go and introduce yourself to her."
Joel was not looking forward to his nursing home visit. But he nevertheless went to the stranger and introduced himself. She looked at him skeptically and asked, "Are you one of my relatives?"
Joel answered, "No, I'm not."
And she said, "Good. I hate my relatives. Sit down, son, and talk to me." He did and they talked.
He went back the next week. And the next. They developed a close friendship and Joel soon looked forward to his visits. He learned something about the joy of serving. About working behind the scenes. About playing second fiddle. And he made one woman's world a little more beautiful.
--------------------------------------------
This one struck a cord with me. A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away, my now ex-wife had just moved in with me with her (and another guys) 6 month old son. She liked watching Kenneth Copeland on TV. I did with her but didn't pay much attention. Well he was having a motorcycle rally in TX (the second one). She talked me into going, in those days I was pretty proud of what I could do and not a christian. Well, we borrow a pickup from my folks and they will watch Evan, I've got the basics for camping so off we go. It was a cold night and the next morning I'm out trying to get my old coleman stove going to make coffee and cook breakfast, ex was hiding under the covers. Finally get it going and coffee made and I noticed that some of the campers around us had some decent camping setups. No big deal, mine was rigged for me and my sprorty. Had a leather vest with a patch on the back (no clubs) that, let's say wasn't christian. We head up for the first service and there are several folks standing around a coffee pot waiting for it to finish. I walk up and find myself talking to former Hells Angles, etc. Cool, I ride but never wanted to join a club, always got my ass in enough trouble on my own, didn't need any help. I make it through that service and we head back to camp. I'm working on a few things when a lady from the camp next to us walks up and introduces herself. We talk for a bit and then she ask me what I did for a living, I said 'I'm a broadcast engineer for the Univeristy of XX Journalism School'. She said really what do? I said 'I keep all of the equipment running for the broadcast and audio production working'. She said 'Oh your a fix it guy'. Well let's just say that went all over me. I said 'Well I maintain a 3 camera video production and news facility, we have 3 audio production areas and also bring in local bands and produce master tapes for them, we have Radio News and a Newsroom and I make sure all of the equipment works'. She said 'Ok your a fix it guy' smiled and walked off. That didn't set well with me, I'm thinking, lady I take $40,000.00 video cameras and put them on my workbench and find the 20 cent resistor that was bad. I fumed around for a while and kept thinking about it. Then it finally hit me, I was thinking pretty highly of myself and I was just a 'fix it guy'.
Second Fiddle.
My job was to make the professors and students look good. There were times when a prof or student would ask 'what do you do?' I would say 'fix it guy'. They would look at me with a weird look and say 'you keep all of this up and running and you call yourself a 'fix it guy'. I always said 'That's what I do'.
posted by Hujonwi at 00:54
1 Comments:
That's a beautiful post Huj and a good lesson.
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