Why do people spend their lives doing something which makes them nervous, even to the point of making them sick? I have watched musicians go on stage so frightened that it has been obvious to everyone present that they could not possibly be about to perform as well as they could. They look pale, they may be physically shaking, they are swallowing hard. What lies ahead of them seems like sheer hell. How can they bear to put themselves through this every time they want to ply their trade?
They remind me of sportsmen. In fact at one level the two ways of life are quite closely linked by gesture and terminology. When we go on stage people often wish us luck, as if luck will cause our fingers or our
larynxes to function just that fraction of a second more fluently than otherwise, and so win us a prize.
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