One Violinist

*taken with my cell phone last week

A man with a violin was walking through a huge forest. The sun was shining on him and the fresh air made him feel great. It was a beautiful morning. He was a famous musician in his town. He played the violin. Sometimes he played his violin in the palace for the king.
Just walking in the forest tired him, but it was very peaceful. Tall trees, flowers, squirrels, birds - the forest looked like paradise.
He sat on a rock to rest and a bird came and sat on his shoulder. He picked up his violin and played it. Do you know what happened? The bird on his shoulder disappeared. The violinist was so surprised.
He felt very strange, but he tried again. Then the flower by the rock disappeared. Now he thought that it was fun, and kept on playing.
The stream, the trees, the squirrels, the flowers, the birds, and everything else disappeared, except the rocks. It was like a dessert. He played again. The sun disappeared. Then he played once more and he vanished without a trace.
Just the violin on the rock was left.

-Daniel Cho

This poetic story is just one of the beautiful writings by our friend Dan who died last week, he was a musician on tour with Regina Spektor. I love the way that this story describes pieces of the artistic process, to me it reads like an allegory, but it is also layered with meaning now in light of his death.
Dan's life was much too short, there was so much left to come from him creatively, and so much living to do with his young family. There is much at work here that we are struggling to understand.
Articles were written about his accident, and his life, here and here.