It’s like a boat filled with people crossing the ocean: If they encounter a storm and everyone panics, the boat will capsize. But if there is one person in the boat who can remain calm, that person can inspire other people to be calm. And then there will be hope for the whole boatload.
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022), Zen Master and peace activist
I want to be the calm person on the boat... I thought as I played my concerts in Washington DC last week.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of November of 2024, federal employees made up 43.3% of the District’s workforce – the highest percentage in the country. Amongst my audience members were people who had recently lost their jobs due to DOGE’s massive layoffs, and others who feared they would be next. Some told me of popular restaurants that had closed, and businesses whose futures now hung in uncertainty.
Amidst this atmosphere of anxiety, I started to feel that my role as a musician was to offer something else entirely: to be unabashedly idealistic and hopeful. “I am a granddaughter of an atomic bomb survivor. And yet, 80 years later, I am here with you to share music and celebrate our interconnectedness. If that is possible, imagine what more we can achieve together.”
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – from “I Have a Dream” delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on August 28, 1963
I saw that “soul force” in the school children I got to play for, thanks to the Little Lights after school program.
This blog entry is based loosely on #152 of my bi-weekly column, The Way of the Pianist, to be published on Sunday May 4th in Nikkan San.