When Exceptions Look Like the Norm
‘I’ve been doing something so irrational and self-destructive that it reminds me of you,’ PDB11 said. I couldn’t argue with that – after all, my own irrationally pessimistic thoughts are a recurring theme in this blog. Yesterday, we had been out to Trio Paradis concert. It had been splendid, but PDB11 had found that, instead of simply enjoying the music, he couldn’t stop noticing how much better these three musicians were than he was, and feeling depressed about not being that good. The same thing had happened a few days before. Already feeling despondent and wanting to do something together that we might enjoy, PDB11 had suggested we listen to a Vaughan Williams CD. But by the end of the first track, he switched it off. Again, he couldn’t stop feeling regretful that, even though music had always been his great joy and being a musician had been a key part of his identity, he hadn’t taken composition lessons as a teenager and hadn’t followed a career as a musician, and