The Numbers Game

 I reposted the last post on Facebook to try to reach a wider audience and so far, 24 people have liked it. Meanwhile, the stats on this Blog say 14,519 people have read it, one of the higher numbers I’ve seen. Any artist naturally wants as many people as possible to consider her/his work, be it a book, a poem, a post, a painting, a performance, what have you. It’s a lot of work to create something and yet more to put it out in public, so yes, knowing it reaches people feels like a natural part of the cycle, a completing of a loop. And having made the effort, yes, there is a satisfaction in knowing that large numbers of people have seen/heard/ read your work and are considering what you offered. 

 

But at the end of the day, so what is it’s 24 or 14,000? It doesn’t change my experience of the day. I had one person who I know make some thoughtful comments on the post that actually inspired another post and that was indeed more satisfying and real then 14,000 anonymous readers. And who knows? Perhaps 13,900 of them were bots. 

 

I suppose I should count myself lucky that while I have a modest amount of ambition and a mild lust to be known (for what I believe are the right reasons), the center of my work is mostly with 20 to 50 kids or teachers at a time in real time. I have written more about this music education work than most any other colleague I know and again, I hope it touches other teachers and helps them reach their students with more joy and musical satisfaction. But all my writing is just a description of the marvelous banquet of the teaching itself and some recipes that help pass on some of the tasty dishes. But it’s not the meal itself. 

 

These days, I’m writing much more about the larger issues behind the work, the humanitarian promise I’m trying to nurture and draw attention to and celebrate. I’m posting here and on Facebook in hopes that my words bring solace and comfort in distressing times, hope and light in dark times, determination and courage in fearful times and some necessary information that helps people see the larger perspective of what’s going down in the greater world of culture and politics. So yes, the numbers here feel like they could matter, reaching 14,000 voters instead of 24. But it’s not in my control.

 

Meanwhile, I’ve just arrived in Portland to be with my grandkids while Mom is at a Conference. So I’ll turn my attention to the numbers that truly matter— the Rummy 500 score in our card game!