Your Unique Song
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Sometimes a person looks around at what others have, and starts to feel like he is living a deprived life. He thinks to himself, "If only I had his family, or if only I had his business, or if only I had his life...I would accomplish so much more. I would be such a better person." If that ever happens, the person has to remind himself what his purpose is in this world. Hashem perfectly planned everything out and determined exactly what each person needs to have in order to be successful and do his job correctly. If it would be any different, the person would not be able to fulfill his purpose. We have to do the best we can in the conditions that Hashem gave us. If we do, our lives are successful, and we will enjoy eternal bliss. We should never underestimate our potential. Someone who has less and accomplishes more is a hero. It is not about what we have, it is about what we do with what we have.
There is a man by the name of Itzchak Perlman, a world famous violinist. He was struck with Polio as a young child and has braces on both of his legs. He has to walk with the aid of two crutches. When he gives a concert, the audience watches as he walks across the stage, one step at a time, painfully and slowly. In 1995, he came on the stage to give a concert at Lincoln Center in New York City. He made his way to the stage as usual, then he put down his crutches on the floor, undid the clasps on his legs, tucked one foot back and extended the other forward, bent down, picked up the violin, put it under his chin and finally started to play. But this time, something went wrong.
Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on the violin snapped. You could hear it snap. It went off like gunfire across the room. The people in the audience figured that he would now have to get up, put the clasps back on his legs, pick up his crutches, limp his way off the stage, and either find another violin, or find another string for that one. But he didn't. He waited a moment, closed his eyes, and then signaled the conductor to begin playing again. The orchestra began from where he left off. He played with such passion and power, such purity like he never had before. Everyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. But that night, Itzchak Perlman refused to know that. You could see him modulating, changing, recomposing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before. When he was finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then the people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. He smiled, wiped the sweat from his brow, and then he said in a quiet and humble way. "You know, sometimes it is the artist's job to find out how much music he can still make with what he has left." This was a man who prepared all of his life to make music with four strings. But on that night, he found himself with just three. With those three strings, the music he played was more beautiful, more sacred and more memorable than he had ever made before.
In life, some people are given four strings and some are given three. But no one is really limited. The music that comes from someone with just three strings can be the most beautiful of all. We are to take whatever we were given and try to make the greatest music for Hashem. If we do that, then we are successful, and we will fulfill our purpose in this world.
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