Easter Bunny and Christ Child

Dear friends of piano music,

of course, every child is a miracle, so the term “child prodigy” is a bit nonsensical and old-fashioned. However, I have not come up with a better term for the fact that a child, in this case Chopin, achieves something that hardly an adult can. Even if the musical language that is so characteristic of him is not yet so pronounced here and you think you can hear the great role model Mozart. Without a doubt a brilliant sound poet, even if his personality is still growing. The development from child to adult is a difficult and for me highly puzzling process, especially when it comes to your own children, whom you want to encourage and support. Often enough, however, you don't even know what's helpful and you only notice your mistakes afterwards. For example, there is the matter of the Easter Bunny and the Christ Child. My son is six, he is learning to read, write and arithmetic, and he firmly believes that he heard the Easter Bunny in April. There were noises in the nursery at night, thus providing empirical evidence for the existence of the Easter bunny. I'm so glad he didn't try to confront him, otherwise he would have caught me jumping through the nursery myself to hide eggs and chocolate. On Christmas Eve, too, it becomes more and more difficult for me to find an unnoticed moment when I can put the presents under the tree. This magic of secretly being given presents by mythological beings makes up the magic of Christmas for the children, I do not like to break this magic. But at some point they'll find out that I've been cheating on them for years. I dread it. Recently my own mother told me how incredibly disappointed and sad she was as a child when she found out that there is no Easter Bunny or Christ Child. Still, I believe that when children are young, they should be protected from too cruel truths. It is not easy. My son had just turned four when he asked me if nuclear power plants were dangerous.

It's hard to lie, but I hope I was able to phrase it so that he didn't have to worry too much because he was really too small for that. It's basically a bit like pseudo croup or laryngitis in toddlers - we parents have to keep our fear to ourselves, because when the child notices that mom is also afraid, it will panic itself, get even worse breath, and in an emergency that can be decisive. My son had a laryngitis when he was two years old, it was really bad, especially at night. At that time I asked the pediatrician, whom I appreciate very much, if he could choke on it because I had no idea about these diseases. He hesitated for a moment, then said no. Today I know that he lied, but it was a very carefully considered lie that he wanted to protect mother and child with. He knew that I would conscientiously give him his medication and watch over his bed at night, but he wanted to prevent me from panic and fright. In retrospect, I learned a lot from this story, and my trust in the doctor has not suffered as a result. He is very clever and experienced, he has seen a lot of suffering, in Africa and in the children's intensive care unit, and he lied because he wanted to protect us. I very much hope that my children will see it that way at some point when they discover my secrets. The Easter Bunny and the Christ Child may seem marginal next to severe laryngitis, but from the children's point of view it's different.

Kerstin

Frédéric Chopin: Polonaise, oeuvre posthume in g minor, allegro, ma non troppo

https://youtu.be/yg43JG8zHos