Happy Anniversary to TED

It was exactly one year ago today that my long-dreamed of date with TED (well, technically, TEDx) happened. It didn’t make me rich or famous. It didn’t inspire viewers to rush to find out where they could buy my books. It didn’t fill my calendar with more speaking engagements. It didn’t catch the attention of the TED minus the x Channel and inspire them to give me another talk with five extra minutes. It didn’t mark the turning point of a re-commitment to inspired music education throughout the United States and beyond. We follow our passion and look for opportunity to share it and imagine that what we care about will make a significant dent in the world. It doesn’t appear that my talk even made a hint of a wrinkle.

But like all things worth doing, it was good for me to prepare, helped hone my thinking about what’s important and helped me think about how to communicate it to strangers. It has been nice to have another medium beyond my books and this blog to go further than my body can travel. And for a subject—why music education in schools?— that gets very little airplay in our nations’ public discourse and let’s face it, is way low on people’s list of what they’re thinking about when they wake up in the morning, I think it did pretty well: 8,604 page views,  106 people who took time to say they liked it, 0 who gave it at thumbs-down. And 15 who took time to write comments that ranged to the over-inflated: “You are so Great, Sir!” “I am so honored to have studied with this amazing man.” “Legend?” to the appreciative “Wonderful!” Super! “Thank you.”to the “Huh?”— “Conejo means rabbit in Spanish.”

And while I’m in this anniversary mode, this day was also when I flew to Korea three years ago and initiated the theme of this blog (the actual first entry was 1/11/11, an auspicious date!). And in my numbers-nerd mode, may I report that over the three years there have been 707 pieces I’ve written and posted, 115 followers, 71, 359 page views . Okay, I know Justin Beiber gets that much attention every three hours, but still, I’m gratified that I not only get to share my experiences and thoughts in a public venue, but that some people actually read it and occasionally find it affirming or thought-provoking or entertaining or evocative. That’s enough for me.

So on the occasion of these multiple anniversaries, my gratitude to all the readers and viewers and my hopes that I continue to be worthy of the mild attention I’m getting. And TED, feel free to call me for a second date.