12/31/2023: Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I wish everyone has a healthy and prosperous 2024. My writing has been lackluster lately. That’s because I got a new piano and I have been playing it. I hadn’t played piano since my first kid was born 13+ years ago. But it just dawned on me that my kids are old enough that I can play without being interrupted!!! I restarted playing piano a few months ago and I have so much fun. It’s very different from playing piano as a kid. When I was a kid, piano was basically an achievement people checked off their list. It’s about credential building and very goal oriented to the point that it killed most of the fun. My parents were not even pushing me but the culture was quite daunting. Playing music is such a wonderful thing but somehow the Asian tiger mom culture makes it a competitive sport. As a parent, I want to make sure my kids have fun playing music and they don’t have to be perfect. After all, the goal is not to become Yuja Wang or Grigory Sokolov. There is a spiritual element of instrument playing. I hope my kids can experience that.

I probably spend too much time playing piano. I expect at some point my piano fever will break and I will get back to more serious writing. For now, please enjoy some piano music from an intermediate player ;-). Happy New Year!