Negative income, positive outlook

I'm playing in a concert this weekend with a group of people who are mostly already acquaintances of mine. The concert is entirely French baroque, which, as you may or not know, is my favorite kind. A surprising number of friends, including a few I didn't think would be all that interested are coming out to hear it, and although we've had rehearsals every night this week, I'm looking forward to the concert. The mid-week rehearsal is always an interesting phenomenon. Occasionally, they get canceled because things are going to swimmingly, but more often they are the energetic low point and general stress-fest that you would expect them to be. Last night's rehearsal was no exception. There were battles of wills, and what was, to me, a surprising sense of lethargy or even apathy. I'm sure it's complicated, as such things always are, and it may have as much to do with how much sleep any given person got the night before, or what kind of a day they had. But for me, I am realizing more and more what a joy playing baroque music is, and how glad I am that I decided to pursue it. There were a couple of times last night when I almost couldn't contain my exasperation. I wanted to say, "hold the phone here. You guys are all intelligent people who could be doing anything you wanted with your lives. You could be doctors, or designers, or sales managers, or lawyers, or god only knows what, but you've chosen to do something that is hard, pretty thankless, and will likely never pay your bills. If you don't enjoy doing it, even this nitty-gritty detail stuff, why are you here!" But of course I didn't say that. I slogged through the rehearsal like everyone else, enjoying the music as much as I could. Tonight is a dress rehearsal, and so people will be a little more keyed up for the performance. At least I hope so. Because it's only a fun profession when it's not seen as a job but a choice.