Musings on Beethoven and Living a Full Life

There is a scene in Immortal Beloved in which Beethoven explains something about music to Anton Schindler. Music is the listener's opportunity to see into the mind of the composer. As the music playing with the scene gets louder, he asks, "Listen, what was I thinking when I composed this?" He pauses, then, "Imagine you are on your way to see your love. On the way, your coach breaks down and it is very difficult to fix. You feel anxiety and impatience, all you want is to move, to get to your love. This music is what is happening in the mind as this is experienced." FYI: I paraphrased the hell out of this quote, offer your corrections if you know better.

What makes a genius, or at least a genius as I conceive Beethoven to have been, is that he experiences the world in a richer and more fully dimensional way than is normal AND has the ability to export his experience to others -- the ambassador of experience.

The primary point of this little ditty is that experience is the unit of measure when evaluating successful living. The degree to which we fully experience life and then engage with others and share life, is the level to which we are fulfilling our life's purpose.

On a loosely related note from the movie: By our standards, he was emotionally irresponsible -- following his passions indiscriminately. It may be that the fuller experience and the emotional irresponsibility are co-occuring. In other words, being fully engaged with yourself and your environment might displace the ability to, or interest to, follow social norms.