Focus

I just found out that composer Franz Schubert only lived to be 31 years old.

He was plagued with poor eyesight-- and also "plagued" with being a mere 5-feet tall.

The final count of his work: a staggering 998 compositions (I heard his 9th Symphony in C Major this week, performed by the Chicago Civic Orchestra-- and it was marvelous).

And something that I came to admire about him (as if his music weren't enough)-- was the fact that he seemed to have lived a very simple life.

From Phillip Huscher, the program annotator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra:

"When Franz Schubert died at the age of thirty-one, the legal inventory of his property listed

three cloth dress coats
three frock coats
ten pairs of trousers
nine waistcoats
one hat
five pairs of shoes
two pairs of boots
four shirts
nine neckerchiefs and pocket handkerchiefs
thirteen pairs of socks
one sheet
two blankets
one mattress
one featherbed cover
and one counterpane (bedspread)."

These were his only "physical" belongings, and his music manuscripts were later found to have been entrusted to his brother Ferdinand. Years later, the wonders of Franz's work came to be known.

There is so much in this story to "encourage" me-- and maybe you can draw encouragement from one facet or another.

But here's to doing as Franz Schubert did: investing in what really "matters"...