shackles

i think it was around the year 1997, Yehuda Hanani, the world famous and very celebrated cellist, came to St. John’s College (my alma mader: www.sjcsf.edu) and played Bach’s six cello suites. this is a rote performance for all great cellists… and an extreme pleasure for the listeners of such genius.

during this concert, i think everyone was a little in shock that it was actually happening. i was sitting in the front row, watching this man bow his instrument, listening to those glorious notes flow from his pregnant pear shaped cello; i could hear his breathing syncopated with the music and i left time in that music and moreover in the moment of this man’s performance. he played the first three suites and sort of brusquely stood up, setting the bow and cello aside. everyone in the audience (in the great hall at my college: it holds 300 people at most) shifted around and seemed surprised that he stopped. he just suddenly did this, unplanned, and then started talking.

he began by saying that everyone has to do something. he said that for a long time he had the intimation that his thing was music, and above that, that it was the cello… and, like jonah, he ran from his calling, afraid of its power and portent. he described slowly coming around to the realization that no one can do all things, no mortal anyhow, and then one must choose. he told the audience that one must choose a thing as an object of dedication. “you have to choose your shackles,” he said. picking up the cello again and holding it, looking down at it, he said, “this is my shackles.” and then sat down as abruptly as he had stopped and played the last three cello suites of bach.

age quod agis. this is a latin expression which means, “do what you are doing.” when i first heard it i thought, “how could a person NOT do what he is doing?” but i think, upon meditation, that it means, do what you are doing to the fullest. DO IT. if you’re in war, fucking do it. if you’re going to take the roof off your house, take it off in the best way, as best as you possibly can, with virtue, grace and find solace in that. if you’re picking up dog shit in your yard, DO IT. this man, yehuda hanani, does what he does. that is worthy of commendation as much as anything else in this theater of human activities.

so it turns out that nike’s catch phrase has even more depth than we originally thought.