Summer's Memory is the final season of my journey as follows my remembrance, For all too soon. Although not complete by any means, it is my story of the now in my journey as an individual, a music teacher, and that of a rather adventuresome fellow.
A true story, although it bears some imagined outcomes from past seasons. This is a remembrance of winning, of losing, the givers and the takers, as lived in the autumn of Richard's years. These are the stories that have yet to be told - those about courage and music; about ideals, adversity, and success.
Were I to pick one theme to sum up my passion for advocacy on behalf of my students, it would be about a striking incident within a university music department conference while advocating for a blind student:
About to submit to defeat, I sat, thought, and calmly said to myself, "Richard, remember the many others that you had to defend their right to music literacy. Stand up to these doubting professors! Dramatize if you have to, but whatever you do remember your own words: 'Not this time you don't. This is her shining moment, and not you or anyone else is going to take that from her!'"
And so, if Richard can leave this world one day feeling that he has done his best to contribute some things to ponder in his little stories, then maybe, just maybe there might be a glimmer of hope for others to turn the tides into a new millennium of healing and wisdom.
Were it not for the dreamers, the practical folks of the world would have nothing to do! - R. Taesch 