How we think about ourselves has been a recurring theme in several of the books I’ve been reading recently: The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, Let Me Be a Woman, and You Who: Why You Matter and How to Deal With It. All of them point us away from the current obsession with “creating ourselves” and towards who God has created us to be. But this week, I wanted to share a quote from Year of Wonder: Classical Music to Enjoy Day by Day. I bought this book in mid-January, so I had to do some catching up, but it has been good for me to listen to someone else’s favorite music rather than just my own; and despite having listened to classical music for most of my life, Clemency Burton-Hill has introduced me to some composers and music I’d never heard of before. It is geared towards an adult audience, however, and some of the anecdotes and her desire to be “inclusive” in the modern connotation of the word would make hesitant to use it with kids and young teens.
Burton-Hill quotes Clara Schumann, who was not only the wife of composer Robert Schumann and mother of many children, but also a pianist and composer herself:
Composing gives me great pleasure. There is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound.
I was a bit dumbfounded when Burton-Hill went on to equate “self-forgetfulness” with “self-care” and “me-time”, as I actually think Schumann was referring to something quite the opposite. Refreshment was certainly a result of this creative time, but it went deeper than just some “time to myself” – it was a time set aside to exercise the creative gifts of her Creator.
Also read/listened to recently:
- Hubby: Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Me: Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace
- Miss A: Hitler by Albert Marrin – not a fun read 🙁
- Mr D: Paradise Lost by John Milton
- Mr. E: The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden for the second time, this time to L
- Mr. L: Hill of Fire by Thomas P. Lewis, based on a true story
- Little R: The Skeleton Inside You by Philip Balestrino (he’s a bit obsessed with skeletons 😛 )
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