Must You?!
. . . do and be that?

“Must you play the piano so loud?”
was a question that often I heard
as I played a powerful Chopin ‘Etude’
or a complex Bach ‘Prelude and Fugue’.
Circumstances sometimes dictate
that we must do what asked not to do.
My reply, of course, was consistent
that if the composer or music required it
then play it loudly I must.
There are times we can attempt to modify
that which we originally felt we must do
for the sake of peace in the family —
and still feel we are being completely true
to ourselves and to what we must do.
However, another question often asked
by my dearly beloved husband
was “Must you be so ‘teachery’?” . . .
to which I could only reply
“I was born a teacher —
I know no other way to be.”
I indeed must be true
to how I was created;
this I cannot modify . . .
to myself I must be true.
And so I guess the musts win out
in each and every case and time …
for how else could a requirement
be considered anything else
but what its name so clearly implies?
A ‘must’ is a must by whatever name —
and so when all is said and done . . .
I simply must do what I must do
and be what I was created to be.

