{"id":137,"date":"2010-06-15T19:43:28","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T02:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midwestmotet.org\/?p=137"},"modified":"2010-06-15T19:46:15","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T02:46:15","slug":"i-wish-i-were-a-better-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midwestmotet.org\/?p=137","title":{"rendered":"I wish I were a better person"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After the concert, and before the new session of auditions and other madness begins, I get reflective.  This week, I am doing a little bit of self-analysis.<\/p>\n<p>Quite bluntly, I wish I were a better person.  In my bio&#8211;almost all my bios&#8211;it speaks of my interest in the arts for those with disabilities.  I wish I could say that interest came naturally&#8211;it didn&#8217;t.  I became interested in those with disabilities only because I became a mother of someone with a disability. And, I wanted my son to have opportunities to perform and learn about music and, really, to have music in his life, like his non-disabled brothers.<\/p>\n<p>I used music as tool when Russell was young to teach him things.  I found he listened and focused better if I sang a request or he calmed down if I put on some Bach.  When he was older, I insisted he become a music inclusion student.  I can honestly say, music changed his life, gave him an interest in something and helped him gain some control of his emotions.<\/p>\n<p>If I was a better person, perhaps I would have realized children with disabilities could benefit from music.  Perhaps, having Russell in my life has made me a better person, and for that, I am grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After the concert, and before the new session of auditions and other madness begins, I get reflective. This week, I am doing a little bit of self-analysis. Quite bluntly, I wish I were a better person. In my bio&#8211;almost all my bios&#8211;it speaks of my interest in the arts for those with disabilities. I wish &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/midwestmotet.org\/?p=137\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">I wish I were a better person<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midwestmotet.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midwestmotet.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midwestmotet.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midwestmotet.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midwestmotet.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/midwestmotet.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139,"href":"http:\/\/midwestmotet.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midwestmotet.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midwestmotet.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midwestmotet.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}