The Dedication of a Musician

I am reading the biography of a musician (Leo Sowerby), and I read a quote that makes my head shake in sorrow: “[Sowerby] also cultivated a rhetoric that pushed aside questions of his personal life, stating repeatedly for instance it would be impossible for him to do what he did as a musician while also being married.”  I think most readers of this blog who cultivate an active Catholic life and who diligently follow the teachings of the Church in its fullness might agree: one cannot be a good husband/wife/father/mother/priest/religious and become one of those rarified musicians who are able to dedicate all their time to hone their craft.  However, might I suggest that this wholly misses the point of being an artist.  St. John Paul II says that man is generous by nature. In other words, it is in the very being of what it is to be human to be giving of oneself.  An artist who is truly living their God-given talent gives freely of themselves first in their vocation, and then their contemplation of beauty will not be stifled by their life in communion with others.  Rather, that giving of self is the underlying impetus and drive that will influence and mold their art in ways that living a worldly-minded, “self-fulfilled” life can never do.  “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”