Some of you may already know that February 18th was unofficially declared “Pluto Day” many, many years ago when Clyde Tombaugh discovered this planet on this day in 1930.
Many people in and around my generation were confused and frustrated when authorities (namely the International Astronomical Union – I had to look that up myself) declared that Pluto was in fact, no longer considered to be a planet and would be renamed as a dwarf planet. Everything that we had all been taught in school regarding Pluto was suddenly thrown out the window. Pluto was not one of the nine major planets of our solar system, and just like Ceres the century before was suddenly given a new less appealing name and demoted to obscurity.
In many ways this reminds me of life as a musician. Many musicians are successful for only a brief period of time: an album, one song, a short stint as a first chair performer – sometimes just one exceptional performance that happens to be seen by enough of an audience. I have been blessed so far to have a long fulfilling life as a professional musician, but there were many times that I thought I might be about to disappear from the public eye just as quickly as poor Pluto.
I remember the Geneva International Competition back in 1972, when I had followed my girlfriend Emily to Europe in one of my first efforts to make a name for myself as a world-class clarinetist (read my book for more of this story!) At that time, I did not even make it past the first round of auditions. I felt humbled by what I saw as the greater skills and stronger repertoires of my fellow competitors. This was not the first or last failure that I experienced in performance auditions.
It was difficult to know that I had not been selected. I think the most important quality that I possessed at that time was an ability to brush off these feelings shortly after I was bothered by them, then continue blithely on my chosen path without letting past failures weigh me down. I feel that many people give up entirely, or at least become negatively transformed by a poor performance or simply a poor reception from family, or other critics. I hope that my readers remember that everyone views life through a different lens. Maybe whatever activity they were engaged in just went poorly that day. Doesn’t mean it will go poorly next time. Maybe the most recent critic just had a different arbitrary opinion that will differ completely from the next critic’s views! Maybe the person making the decision had a fight with their wife, or ate some bad salami for lunch!
I think the most important message I can offer to anyone aspiring for any endeavor is to keep keep moving forward. Just keep trying. Do not let life, or opinions, or individual experiences stop you from doing everything that you can do to be the best person you can be. Pluto is still out there. Still orbiting the Sun just like it always has, whether we choose to call it a planet, or a dwarf planet, or a plutoid. Pluto just keeps moving forward, despite popular opinion and populist labels. So too can we all keep orbiting our own dreams. I intend to!
David Singer, Grammy Award-Winning Professional Musician for 55 years
Author of “From Cab Driver to Carnegie Hall“
www.singerclarinet.com
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