A Life of Interests: An Introduction to this Blog

I have spent my life getting interested in something and letting the interest lead me into many directions, until it became a wound-up collection of topics, like a rubber band hoarder’s ball. My earliest passionate interest starting around the age of seven or eight was commonly ordinary for little girls: horses.  I read every book about horses in the children’s section of the library, fiction and non-fiction. I had a beloved collection of plastic horses, which were the only objects in my room I cared to arrange and dust. I studied riding from books, and used a largish concrete pipe section in the neighbor’s yard to “ride on” and “practice.” That led to begging for real riding lessons, which I earned by vacuuming our entire house. (I must have been about nine.) Then I was driven to Eaton Canyon Stables, a place filled with children, parents and instructors so unbearably snooty that my mother couldn’t bear to stick around to watch. It was miserable for me too, so I secretly discarded the idea of getting on a horse again.  I saw movies about horses on TV and at the theaters; I implored my father to take me to Santa Anita racetrack, which he did, once. At one point I so loved a huge and expensive book by a famous painter of horses, that I promised my parents that its purchase would be my sole Christmas present. I took a class at the Pasadena Art Museum where I only drew and painted horses, until the teacher gave up trying to persuade me to try something else. How long did this passion last? It’s still with me! When American Pharoah won the Triple Crown this year, I wept.

As the years go by, my passionate interests have become like powerful magnets being dragged through coarse sand, picking up pointy filings of related fascinations. Japanese, Japan, Japanese cooking, history, religions, customs, art, literature, music, Kabuki, Noh, film, husband, in-laws, etc.   Violin playing, chamber music, composers, recordings, performing, concert attendance, teaching, repertoire, pedagogy, travel, etc.

ETC., ETC.

The interests keep coming, joining the ones already there. They have never stopped, ever. They fuel, enliven, and drive my existence.I am enthralled by them.

TIMELINE

Here is an approximate chronology of when my various interests started:

1959                     Horses

1967                     Violin study with the Suzuki Method 

1968                     Spanish, travel

1969                     Japanese, Japan, Violin teaching, literary fiction

1970                     University classes in general education

1973                     Classical music: symphonies, chamber music

1974                     Latin American literature, bicycling, general education

1978                     Chamber music, French

1979                     London, French, museum visiting, European travel

1980                     Opera, theater, spiritual growth

1981                     Calligraphy, French literature

1983                     Italian, Italian literature

1984                     German

1985                     Arabic—Modern Standard

1986                     Arabic—Egyptian dialect, Egypt travel/history

1990                     Polish

1993                     Knitting

1994                     Violin study—traditional approaches

1996                     GLBT

1999                     Drawing and watercolor               

2001                     String quartets: Playing and studying

2004                     New home/neighborhood

2005                     Chinese, another new home/neighborhood! Native plants/natural habitat

2006                     Organic vegetable gardening, American String Teachers Association

2010                     Longevity diet and CRON

2011                     Fashion and Style

2014                     Sewing