themarginalian.org · 7 hours ago

Legendary Cellist Pablo Casals, at Age 93, on Creative Vitality and How Working with Love Prolongs Your Life – the...

Pablo Casals - cellist, humanitarian, and one of the most vital spirits of the twentieth century - practiced Bach at the piano every morning well into his nineties, not out of habit, but as what he called "a rediscovery of the world of which I have the joy of being a part." This piece, drawn from Maria Popova's exploration of Casals's autobiography *Joys and Sorrows*, follows a man who survived a near-suicidal crisis in his youth and emerged with a lifelong conviction that purposeful work is not something life permits us to do, but something that keeps life itself from slipping away. At 93, he wrote that "the man who works and is never bored is never old," and he meant it not as aphorism but as testimony - he continued working until near his death at 96. What Casals offers is quieter than inspiration: a reminder that renewal is not a grand gesture but a daily one, found in a Bach fugue, a walk along the beach, the unchanged astonishment of watching the sea.