Daily Meditation: Sunday, April 13, 1997

Suppose you are attending the concert of a virtuoso – a …

04/13/1997

Suppose you are attending the concert of a virtuoso – a pianist for example. He offers his audience his talent, his inspiration and the fruit of long hours of work. But if this audience is totally unaware of his work, if they are noisy or merely inattentive, the pianist senses it, and even if he is the greatest virtuoso in the world he is unable to produce his greatest genius, because there is no communication between him and the audience. But what if this same pianist looks out into the audience and discovers just one look of wonder and delight? He then begins to play for this look, perhaps not knowing whether it belongs to a man or a woman. He plays for that light shining there in the darkness of the hall, and he becomes a genius. In some way or other, human beings need to sense an echo to their acts, to their words. If there is no reciprocity, then exchange is no longer possible. And exchange is the law of life.