If you want to be moved to the core, watch this 11-minute video that is an Academy Award contender for "Best Short Documentary" this Sunday. "The Lady in Number 6" is the story of Alice Herz-Sommer, a 109-year old holocaust survivor and world's oldest pianist.
More than 70 years ago, she played over 100 concerts in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, including all of Chopin's 27 Etudes.
Listen to the strength and lilt of her voice as she talks about how music literally saved her life. At 109 she said, "Just thinking about music makes me happy." She is the antithesis of tragic, even though her life would be called so - by anyone's standards. Her husband and mother were gassed at Auschwitz.
Alice
Herz-Sommer
What can lawyers learn from Alice's story?
Find hope. Be passionate about your work, your life. Find things to love that sustain you even when you are feeling tragic and sad. Surround yourself with beauty. That will be the inspiration for your vision and strategy.
Alice died last week.
I am so grateful to have opened this window into her extraordinary life.