Message from the President:
Mistakes….We all make them. Lots of them. Some of us handle them well and some of us don’t. I, for one, have a hard time when they happen, trying to figure out what went wrong, how did I not see that coming, and “what was I thinking?”
Gandhi said, “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” Mistakes guide us, they do not define us. On a humorous note, Groucho Marx said “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.”
In some way, mistakes open up new opportunities and possibilities that we would never have considered before. How many inventions have been created by mistakes? Silly Putty should have been a replacement for rubber for troops during World War II. The pacemaker, the microwave oven, penicillin, the ink-jet printer… just to name a few…all were the results of “mistakes.”
As a musician, you make plenty of mistakes. But there is an inspiring story from the world of jazz that I’d like to share. A young Herbie Hancock was playing piano with Miles Davis in one of the greatest jazz combos of all time. At a performance, the band was playing incredibly. Right in the middle of Miles Davis’ solo, Herbie hit the wrong chord. A chord that sounded completely wrong. Hancock realized his mistake, covered his ears and waited for the repercussions. Miles paused a second and then played notes that made the wrong chord sound “right”. Miles didn’t hear it as a mistake. He heard it as something that was just happening at the moment and felt responsible to find something that fit with it. The lesson here is to take whatever you have, as the saying goes, and “turn that lemon into lemonade!”
“a person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”… Albert Einstein
We have been busy at Unity by the Shore with our “Re-Union 2” concert with Laura DuBois, our Easter Basket fundraiser, YOU fundraiser and another Chakra Crystal Bowl event. And of course, we all welcomed and celebrated our very own Reverend Angela Denton upon her return from Unity Village.
In the following weeks we look forward to a spring (what is that?) clean-up, another Chakra Bowl event and another evening concert. Hope to see you there!
Tom
Board President
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