Tristan und Isolde

Today is the anniversary of the first performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. You may be wondering why I would take the time to tell you this so let me share with you a story.

Once upon a time there was a young girl who was bored in math class. She couldn't see how math was ever to be useful in her life and it didn't relate much to the things she loved. She never saw the equation the way her teachers wanted her to. She would ponder the problem and then come up with the answer. When her teachers asked her to explain her work or use theory to prove her reasoning she never could. To her math was intuitive and she didn't understand what they were wanting her to see. Consequently math classes became a thing to dread. She knew at the start of each school year that sometime early on she was going to be a disappointment to a teacher and would not be able to rectify the situation for the rest of the year.

One year her teacher asked her why she didn't like math. She told the teacher she could not explain the way math appeared to her. She said it's almost like listening to a song and knowing the next note even though you have never heard the song before. The teacher then asked her to come in during her lunch period and together she thought they could find a way to make math make sense for the young girl.

Seriously doubting that she could ever face math the way all of her classmates did she kept the lunchtime appointment. It was there she first heard Wagner's great work. They listened together for a while and then the teacher asked her to think about how the notes related to one another. Having had some musical training the young girl listened to how the harmony was interwoven with the dissonant chords. She finally understood what her teacher wanted her to learn. Just like the music needed the dissonance to illuminate the tones, life needs it as well. The wise teacher told the young girl to stop trying to see what everyone else saw when they looked at a math problem and be glad for how they appeared to her.

While the young girl would often find herself unable to satisfy subsequent math instructors, she never found herself bored in math class again. Tristan und Isolde and the creative and thoughtful teacher would always have a special place in her heart.

And that is why I reminded you of this date.

-jené