Short story: Making the right notes is about making the right notes, in both body, and mind.

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Alf Wagman, was getting old, and he kept thinking to himself about the life that he had already lived. He was unhappy with it in a sort of a happy way. He could have done more, he knew, but he could have done a whole lot less too. Overall, his life had been relatively smooth sailing. He had always had work, good health, and he lived in a country with no problems that affected his living much either. Nevertheless, he was not contented, and so he tried to find some pursuit in his retirement years that might give him some extra satisfaction too. He took up piano playing, even as his now deceased father used to do. At 70 plus years of age, Alf became a concert pianist, and he travelled all over the World, playing his piano. When arthritis hit his hands though, a mere five years later, he had had enough, and he retired again this time for good, into the comfort of a nursing home, where after five years of vegetative living, he died. Are we the life in our years then, or the years in our life? For Alf, it was a matter of whether his body was still fully alive, or not, and if not, he then became not fully alive either. We are more than our body though, and we should not give up, even when it seemingly gives up on us. We should run our race, and live each stage as it comes to us to live, and never sit on the sidelines of life, just watching it going by. "One does not play the piano with one's fingers: one plays the piano with one's mind." Glenn Gould, (1932 to 1982), a Canadian musician said this. Alf of course knew this too, but he could not play it, his piano, with his mind alone. He did need his fingers too. We also need our bodies to live our life, but when they start giving up on us, we should still try to work with them, within them still too. We should not give up in our minds, also. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com Picture: Alf, at his piano, had found new life in his years, until tears came, with added fears. It was only the black notes that he allowed himself to see then. He should have kept seeing the white ones too.