Wednesday, July 15, 2009

I can't believe it is the middle of July already! There are only 3 more weeks of class (starting next week). We sure are busy. I paid for a Biology online course in April. Haven't even started :) Great!

So I cried in my history of creativity class the other day. It wasn't really that sad, but we were talking about all my heroes . . . you know, Mozart and Beethoven . . . and they had the saddest lives. For a couple of guys who did amazing things for the world of music, they really had to suffer a lot. The story about Beethoven conducting Ode to Joy, which he had written while completely deaf, is particularly moving. He was convinced to conduct it for an audience (like the opening night) and although he could not hear the music, he knew every note of it and could feel the vibrations created by the music. He conducted it so perfectly, and he got so caught up in the music, that in that moment he actually forgot that he was deaf. After he finished the piece, he heard nothing, no applause. He began to cry on the stage, and it wasn't until someone turned him around that he saw the audience was giving him a standing ovation. I cannot imagine how he did the amazing things he did without being able to hear. That must have been a bittersweet experience for him.

While listening to the lectures in this class, I really feel that so much of history was brought about by God. The great people of the scientific revolution and enlightenment and the writers and musicians and thinkers of that time made really huge advances in such a short time. Many of them talk about how they felt inspired--how one thought had provoked a new idea or how in one day they were inspired with a whole symphony. And I know lots of those people had crazy ideas about religion and what God is, but despite that, He seems to be part of every one of their contributions.

As much as I complain about it, I really enjoy being in school.

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