My husband sent me a link to an article by Ta-Nehisi Coates entitled, Learning a Foreign Language is Like Learning a Sport: The long road to not sucking at French.

It immediately resonated with me. After all, music is a language without words.

…I think people should be encouraged to continue their “Physical Education” throughout their lives, just a surely as they should be encouraged to continue their “Intellectual Education” throughout their lives. It’s certainly true that everyone can’t be NCAA-caliber point guard, or a great marathoner. It’s also true that everyone can’t be a great literary critic or playwright. That is no excuse to not read Shakespeare.

It’s no excuse not to play Beethoven, or Fats Waller, or improvise on your favorite pop tune either, in my book. The idea that you shouldn’t keep at something just because you may never be world caliber is truly cutting off your nose to spite your face. You miss out on all that you might have gained emotionally, physically, socially, and culturally—all that you might have been.

Ta-Nehisi goes on to talk about his early experience playing the djembe as a child. He was not a natural at the instrument by any means and describes the feeling of exhilaration he got when, after years of practice, he became OK—because he knew how far he had come.

But one of the great lessons of my childhood was that no one has the right to be naturally good at anything. More there’s a particular pleasure that comes from becoming good at something which you kind of naturally sucked at.

As humans, we are hardwired to compare ourselves to others. Sometimes though, it is much more important to compare ourselves to our former selves.

And now, in honor of Election Day, here is Gabriela Montero’s Election Improv.

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