The Tape Deception
Story★★★★[responsibility, personal faith] Several years ago the concert violinist Itzhak Perlman was cornered after a concert by a mother. She insisted that he listen to a tape of her talented son, a violinist. Perlman was tired and didn’t really want to listen to the tape, but the woman was so insistent, that he gave in. The woman switched on the portable tape player, and the music began. Immediately, Perlman was impressed. It was a very difficult piece, but played with such insight and genius that it moved him to tears.
He listened, spellbound, to the entire recording and them composed himself before he spoke. ”That was magnificent. How old is your son?” “Eight years old,” she said.
”Your son is eight years old and he made that tape?”
“Oh,” said the mother, “that wasn’t him. That was Jascha Heifitz, But all the neighbors think my son sounds just like him!”
The point
A mother tries to pass off a recording by Jascha Heifitz as her son's playing, illustrating the danger of substituting others' faith or accomplishments for personal responsibility.