actively engaged in participating

"We spend an awful lot of time in our lives trying to get good ratings. The teachers are being rated. The schools are being rated. The principals are being rated. But that's actually not what life is about. Life is more about than that. I think must was invented to serve a purpose whether it's to take you to a specific state of mind. Or to create a sense of communal well-being. I think music, in some ways, is the science of the soul, it's the science of the inner life. So the teaching of music is not, sort of to say, 'This what it is and that's it.' But it's more. You activate all your senses to activate your imagination with result of having mental acuity, creativity, and a form of expression that is very precise. There is no greater magic than seeing young people getting turned on by an idea, and starting to grapple with things. To feel that kind of energy, to see the light in their eyes, and to see someone becoming the opposite of apathetic, the opposite of paralyzed, the opposite of feeling powerless to do anything, but to be actively engaged in living, participating, that's the most exciting thing."
Yo Yo Ma



via {chicago symphony orchestra}