On my last birthday I was 93 years old. That is not young, of course. But age is a relative matter. If you continue to work and to absorb the beauty in the world around you, you find that age does not necessarily mean getting old. At least, not in the ordinary sense. I feel many things more intensely than ever before, and for me life grows more fascinating. For the past 80 years I have started each day in the same manner... I go to the piano, and I play two preludes and figures of Bach. I cannot think of doing otherwise. It is a sort of benediction on the house. But that is not its only meaning for me. It is rediscovery of the world of which I have the joy of being a part. It fills me with awareness of the wonder of life, with a feeling of the incredible marvel of being a human being. The music is never the same for me, never. Each day is something new, fantastic, and unbelievable. I see no particular merit in the fact that I was an artist at the age of 11. I was born with an ability, with music in me, that is all. No special credit was due me. The only credit we can claim is for the use we make of the talent we are given. That is why I urge young musicians: Don't be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible for that; it was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what matters. You must cherish this gift. Do not demean or waste what you have been given. Work--work constantly and nourish it. Of course the gift to be cherished most of all is that of life itself. One's work should be a salute to life. Sometimes I look about me with a feeling of complete dismay. In the confusion that affects the world today, I see a disrespect for the very values of life. Beauty is all about us, but how many are blind to it! They look at the wonder of this earth--and seem to see nothing. Each second we live in a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that never was before and will never be again. And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all of the world there is no other child exactly like you. In the millions of years that have passed there has never been another child like you. And look at your body--what a wonder it is! Your legs, your arms, your cunning fingers, the way you move!... You have the capacity of anything. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must cherish one another. You must work--we all must work--to make this world worthy of its children.

    by Pablo Casals     in Salute to Life