I started writing songs when I was about 15 years old. I still remember the first time I attempted to write a song (a love song!) sitting in front of a piano at home. An image of a steam locomotive departing the tracks with your loved one… Words naturally came to me and my fingers automatically created a melody. This was the first song I wrote, and it was called “Meiso (Contemplation).” During the next two years, I think I wrote about 30 songs, both music and lyrics. I had no intellectual explanation as to why the creative process of writing songs, particularly lyrics, brought me so much joy and even made me euphoric. About 23 years ago when I started working on Disney On Ice shows, translating or writing lyrics for the songs in the show became one of my responsibilities. Again, the process of filling the existing musical notes with most effective, persuasive, and artistic words, expressions, and stories brought me a deep sense of fulfillment.

     Recently, I wrote lyrics for the Nanzan Elementary School song. This was an exciting but extremely challenging task, because whatever I wrote would be sung and remembered for decades to come. With the songs in the show, yes, approximately 700,000 to one million people would listen to it all over Japan, but the lyrics will only be heard once. They don’t get to keep the recording of it, nor will they get to read the lyrics on a piece of paper. With school songs, however, not only will the words be read, but they will be sung, remembered, examined, and passed on to future generations. Our song came out well, and many people have congratulated me and the composer (a German classical music composer) on its quality and the messages contained in it.

     I believe that being able to appreciate or create artistic expression is one of the best gifts humans have been bestowed upon. We can look at clouds and experience the excitement of getting cotton candy at Disneyland or feel a nice spring breeze on your cheeks and remember the warm hug you received from your loved one. Because of the ability to expand your physical perception into multitudes of imaginary creations, you can experience life many more times than seems possible. Reading good literature is a fantastic way of cultivating your ability to appreciate and create artistic expression. So, start working on your artistic appreciation today: You will quickly realize how “creatively” you can live your life and how that makes living easy! (424 words) -- Charlie