One night Toscanini, the famous Italian conductor, led the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a very difficult piece to conduct. So majestic was the music that the audience stood for ten minutes of applause. Toscanini took his bows again and again. He turned to the orchestra; they bowed. The audience continued to clap and cheer. Finally Toscanini turned his back on the audience and speaking only to the orchestra said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen. I am nothing, you are nothing, Beethoven is everything!’
C.S. Lewis wrote, ‘To love and admire anything outside yourself is to take one step away from utter spiritual ruin; though, we shall not be well so long as we love and admire anything more than we love and admire God.’
Peter G. James Sinclair has just announced, ‘I have a goal to take my Facebook fan page to 20,000 members by the 28th February, but I cannot do it without the help of my existing fan base.’
‘To my Facebook fan’s friends, he adds ‘They will ask the questions: Who is Peter G. James Sinclair? And what is The Cross & The Switchblade Musical?’
‘But their friends trust my Facebook fans and their opinion. Why? Simply because they’re their friend, and because my Facebook fans know who I am and what I stand for. It’s my prayer that my current fans trust me enough, even at this early stage of our relationship, to feel comfortable to entrust their friends with me – particularly as I take us all on a wonderful adventure together to influence New York and beyond in a powerful and dynamic way.’
Peter says, ‘I would like my fans to take some time to share about this musical with all those friends of theirs on Facebook whom they believe would be blessed to be part of such a dynamic group of people, and to be also instrumental in creating a dramatic chapter in Broadway and New York history?’
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.
by William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)
Background:
At the age of 12, Henley became a victim of tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. In 1867 he successfully passed the Oxford local examination as a senior student. In 1875 he wrote the “Invictus” poem from a hospital bed. Despite his disability, he survived with one foot intact and led an active life until the age of 53.
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One night Toscanini, the famous Italian conductor, led the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a very difficult piece to conduct. So majestic was the music that the audience stood for ten minutes of applause. Toscanini took his bows again and again. He turned to the orchestra; they bowed. The audience continued to clap and cheer. Finally Toscanini turned his back on the audience and speaking only to the orchestra said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen. I am nothing, you are nothing, Beethoven is everything!’
