Scaring Myself into Productivity

It occurred to me this week that my summer break was approaching the halfway point. So while I should be enjoying my son's graduation from high school and all the other great things that happen in June, underneath it all I have this undercurrent of apprehensive worry about all the work I was hoping to do this summer. Each year when our semester ends at the university, I start what amounts to a fresh set of New Year's resolutions, except these are the things I plan to do while I am on summer vacation from teaching college students.

This year the list was pretty clearly defined: 1.) I absolutely have to record my next CD before I start another season of concerts and tours (the one with the all-Beethoven and Chopin program); 2.) Then, I really have to learn the music that I am scheduled to play next season--the Liszt Sposalizio and Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras number 4 are the new things that I am starting from scratch; 3.) Oh yes, I really need to get my diet and exercise routine back into a pattern that works; 4.) And finally, I need to finish booking my concert calendar for the year with another 8-10 dates to fill out my two concert tours and then meet my quota of public appearances for the year.

When I think about all of this stuff my immediate impulse is to go to the beach and indulge my huge capacity for denial and then down it with a chaser of self-denigration. Instead, I have decided to post my most pressing goals in a somewhat public place so that I feel accountable to the three of you who actually read these meandering entries. Incidentally, the image at the top of this post is the painting by Raphael that inspired Liszt to write the Sposalizio as part of the Années de Pèlerinage.