For the long haul

When you receive unwanted and annoying commercial email from some marketer (even though you have clearly unsubscribed), you understand that he is acting in the urgency of the short-term results: "Get some easy money fast". He's sacrificing his long-term success, impact, trust and his relationships over a few pennies.

On the other hand, when you follow an organisation or a person who is so insightful and generous, you cannot help but wonder at his long-term commitment to lead, inspire, and change the people around him who want to be changed.

All of this is true also in organ practice.

There are people who rush through the pieces, rarely stopping to fix mistakes, for whom it's OK to play with accidental fingerings, pedalings, and articulation. If it's not obvious to them how the piece is put together, they will not bother to find out. They are cutting corners, always focusing on short-cuts: "Quick, I have to play something for this wedding tomorrow."

But others are patient. They can wait. They can wait for weeks, months, even years for the results of their honest efforts.

Unlike the short-sighted greedy marketers or impatient organists, they will still be around years from now, still practicing their art while their competition will be long gone after another magic bullet.

Withstand the storms of your mind.