It seems to me that for any artist, whether one is a musician, painter, sculptor, writer, or any one of dozens of other disciplines, there is an ongoing point of
discovery in each performance, each creation, which requires an answer to two very important questions.

1. Who am I now?
2. Who do I want to become?

Art for me is an ongoing process, and music is the way I work, every day, to become more and more of what I’m capable as a human being. That means achievement carries with it the satisfaction of knowing that even though I have done the absolute best I can in the present, there remains a future where I can become even more of who I am and what I can achieve. I am, as Mr. Cosmo and Mr. Alexander always say, constantly working to bridge the gap between my humanity and my divinity. With every goal that is achieved then, another comes to present itself. Why? Because there is always more work to be done, another challenge to be faced; more mystery and wonder inside each work I have studied, memorized and performed that I have yet to discover.

The Lightbulb Moment for me this week is this: The better I become, the better I can become. Like a runner, I am always working to run the same distance in less time. At the piano, I want to fill the next performance, even if it is of the same work, with more substance than the performance that came before it. 

To fully live life is to constantly question the boundaries of our human capacities, while always working to exceed them. Art, like life, tests us, forcing us to question all of which we are capable, while at the same time demanding that we search out more of the truth in ourselves, our music, our words, our images, and how the limits of the present can be excelled by the achievements still waiting for us in the future. Being our best, and becoming our best, means keeping eternity forever on the horizon.