Not a Living Amateur

Mr. Oltman, our college orchestra conductor, who was well-respected by all for his high standards and ability to push his students to excellence, cut off the music being rehearsed.  "WHAT IS THIS???"  He loudly queried the french horn players, "Amateur night???"  The rest of us in the orchestra cringed with the french horns over their public humiliation, but admittedly, it was great incentive to practice the orchestra music.  No one wanted to be labeled an amateur.  

I don't suppose most people would be overly mortified by being called an amateur french horn player.  I wouldn't mind.  I'm not a french horn player.  We can't be excellent at everything, and since most of us don't even know how to hold the instrument, we'd be doing quite well if we were amateur french horn players.  Yet, there was something important that the orchestra conductor was doing.  He was calling us musicians to a very high standard; to excellence.  

These are the memories and thoughts that went through my mind when I read Mr. Oltman was retiring.  He had a huge influence on my life.  He taught me about excellence, and he made me really strive to be excellent at the cello.  I now realize, when I play the cello maybe four times a year, that I am not excellent at the cello.  I miss playing, and hope to play the cello more in the future, but Mr. Oltman taught me something that I can still apply in my life.

Excellence.  

We can't be excellent at everything.  We can't even be excellent at most things.  But, life loses some of its joy if we don't strive for excellence in anything at all. 

Here's something else that stays in my head.  It's in the dialogue in the play "Our Town," by Thornton Wilder, as Emily looks back on the life she lived and the people she loved.

"Emily:  Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?--every, every minute?

Stage Manager:  No.  The saints and the poets, maybe --they do some."

Mr. Oltman taught me about excellence.  I can't be excellent at everything or even most things.  At this phase in my life, I can't be excellent at the cello, but I do have one thing in which I want to excel.  Life.  I don't want to live life as an amateur.  I want to realize the moments I live, as Emily said, and live them well.  God made me to love Him and serve Him, and to love my family and serve them, and the people around me.  

There are moments, like when I have a bad attitude with my family, that I replay in my mind, and think to myself, "amateur!"  That's not the way to be living this life!  Oh, I want my life to be characterized by love!  Life will go by so quickly, and I want to make the most of each moment.  I don't want to get to heaven and regret having lived my life with too much ease and not enough thought.  I'm so happy to be on an eight month (or more?) camping trip with the opportunity to focus on my family and on God.  Sometime, I assume we'll end up at some kind of home again, but no matter where we are, I want to remember the lessons people have taught me in my life.  Excellence.  And, I want to remember not to be a living amateur.

(For those of you who get to this blog from a travel website- sorry.  Next time I'll write about Utah!  There is part of full-time RVing that helps you focus on your family, if you're like me, and you ever want to do that more in avoiding living as an amateur!)