Now and again I go for a jog without music. After the crunchy/clear headed/isn’t this moment grand thing passes (and it does, without fail), I return to the usual fragmented contemplation that running is supposed to help alleviate.

Cresting a hill today, an equation popped onto my mental chalkboard, the results of which were too terrible to consider at the time. To distract myself, I ran the rest of the way home mentally revising the fingerings to the Eb Prelude– the cellist’s version of coming up with the last digit of pi.

A few hours later, I sat down to balance my year-end ledger, and I decided to casually scratch out the figures on a tablet.

 

It was worse than I thought. Since I have owned my current instrument, I have easily put three times more money into it than it is worth- not counting strings. Tack on $10k if we’re counting those.

I love numbers, but sometimes math stinks.

 

 

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4 Responses

  1. This is why poverty is expensive. If you can’t crap a big lump sum on demand, you just put out little tiny ones over and over and over … 😛

  2. You may be forgetting all the many hours of joy you’ve gotten out of your current instrument. And the money you’ve made playing it,not to mention the countless thousands of people you’ve given happiness to through making music for them or even better, teaching them the joy of making music themselves.

    Some things just don’t show up in the number columns. It doesn’t mean they don’t have great worth.

  3. Oh, dear. I so hope you get lucky, as I did. If you are looking to fall in love, though, you need to frequent the violin shops, keep your eye out, and figure out a way to get a loan. As you say, it is better than pissing money away on an instrument that is doing you wrong.

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