This is the punchline to a story I read today about a woman who was so nervous about her own life that she couldn’t focus on her child’s violin practice. It details all the stress of her day. I love how she describes all the mishaps and then how somehow it comes together and somehow it turns beautiful. I love it when life bends that way. I love this story because I relate to it so well on many levels. This writer sometimes offends me but I keep reading because of stories like this that are so funny and then so moving.
You can read the whole thing here (she says the story is tips for coping with your business not being funded while I consider them tips for living a modern life — yours and mine). Here’s the punchline of the story. It applies to what has been on my mind lately about not just our neighborhood but other women I know and who have talked to. Come to think of it, the men too.
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Okay. So there are 100 kids together on the stage playing. And it’s stunning to see.
For a minute I forget that I am running a company that is running out of money.
All the parents in the audience are motionless; those tiny violins all together sound like a chorus of angels.
My son comes back to me in the audience when he’s done. I say, “I’m so proud of you for working so hard.”
He says, “Are you proud of me for playing perfect notes?”
I say, “No. You don’t need to be perfect. You need to just keep trying every day to be your best. And you are doing that. You should be happy for yourself.”
And he says, “You are trying to be your best every day, too, Mommy. You don’t need to have everything be right. You should be happy for yourself.”
I cry.
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