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A QUICK STORY FROM HEAVEN,
AND HOW TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE

A QUICK STORY FROM HEAVEN

One day an old man who, was an expert in the world of art, died and went to heaven where he was met by St. Peter.

The old man asked St. Peter to introduce him to other people who were interested in art.

St. Peter said, “See that man with the beard? He was the greatest artist who ever lived. Want to meet him?”

The old man said, “St. Peter, I know that man and I know art. That man worked in his father's shoe store and he sold me all my shoes for years. And he's not an artist!”

St. Peter replied, “Oh, he could have been the greatest artist who ever lived, but he thought he was a shoe salesman.”

“We have all been placed on this earth to discover our own path,
and we will never be happy if we live someone else's idea of life.”
- James Van Praagh, psychic

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HOW TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE

“Art Tatum was born in 1909 in Toledo , Ohio . He was African American and born partially blind. As an adolescent, he was beaten by other kids and became totally blind. He had perhaps the most exuberant love of music of any child. He wanted desperately to play the piano.

But he faced two problems.

First, he couldn't see.

Second, although Art had learned some violin at music school, his family lacked the money for a private piano teacher. So Art learned to play the piano the only way he could – in the honky-tonk saloons of Toledo in the early 1920s.

Even on the days when he was tired from schoolwork and part-time jobs, he would make at least a little time for what he loved. He would get a friend or family member to walk with him to one of the honky tonks nearby, on Indiana Street , and he would ask to sit at the player piano while it played. By placing his fingers lightly on the keys, every time the player piano pumped and the keys dropped, Art could follow the motions.

It was complicated – yet he loved it. There were so many keys involved, at times it felt nearly impossible to follow them with his fingers. But his passion kept encouraging him to try. Far into the night, song after song, his heart willed his hands to master this art. In this way, he learned to play.

But what Art Tatum didn't know – because he didn't have a piano teacher to tell him it wasn't possible – was that when the player piano manufacturers of the late 1800s and early 1900s made player pianos and made the rolls of paper music to play them, they used two pianists, not one.

Because he didn't know what he tried was impossible, Art Tatum did it anyway. He became the first pianist in history to play four hands of piano music with his two hands.

- Robert K. Cooper, Ph.D.
“The Other 90%”

from: Dr. Rob Gilbert with Joe DePalma

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