Something my Friend Wrote

Alright, one last thing... my friend Josh wrote a little blog that I thought others might enjoy/appreciate... :)

Here is beautiful essay I came across in a book...I think it is quite relevant to anyone....perhaps more acutely so for people with creative tendencies... artists, writers, dancers, et al....

"Standing in my front yard one day this summer, I watched a car creep up and down the road past my house four times before it finally turned into my driveway. Roads in my New England town are thin and winding, and all the trees look the same, so my parents and I are used to giving directions to travelers who have taken wrong turns. However, this driver was not lost or looking for help, but rather returning at a slow speed deliberately, to a territory whose every bump and twist he knew perfectly. When the man stepped out of his car, he introduced himself to me as the boy who had grown up in the house that I live in now. And though I did not recognize the stranger standing in front of me, I felt I already knew the boy of whom he spoke.

For seventeen years I have collected old glass marbles and matchbox cars as they have surfaced from an abandoned sandpile in my backyard. I connected quickly that the man in my driveway was the child responsible for their burial, and I told him of my collection. He laughed as he remembered his pile of toys in the sand, and when I asked him why he had left them there when he moved, he answered, "I used to play with them every day, and when I was finished playing at the end of each afternoon I would just leave everything there until the next morning."

His explanation sounded simple. When he was young, he would play with his toys when he wanted to, go inside when he wanted to, and return to his sandpile the next day. However, the fact that the marbles and matchbox cars are still buried today suggests that there was one morning when the boy woke up and decided not to play. There was one exact moment in time when something changed, when he did not return to his sandpile, and he has not been there since.

The idea that there are singular unpredictable moments in time that divide one stage of life from another has greatly affected my life. I am conscious that something that I am active in today may become part of a past stage without my realizing it, and so I commit myself to each project with the belief that I will never do that particular activity in just the same way again.

For example, if I want to publish a short story today, I am not going to worry that I would have a better vocabulary to write it with in ten years. And when I volunteer to teach illiterate adults, I do not question whether I would be more effective after a few more years of my own education. For today I can pursue both of these activities with the capabilities of a seventeen-year-old, and although the story I write and the class I assist may not be as successful as they would be if I tried them again in ten years, they will invariable be a reflection of my best effort at this point in my life. For as long as I believe that my life comes in stages whose beginnings and endings are invisible, THIS moment is always the right time to write and work, and I am never too young to try anything."

I can relate to this on a personal level....as a singer/songwriter, I constantly find myself thinking....if only I were THIS much better at guitar, or THAT much better at playing piano, or if I could sing SOME note a little prettier, or write a song that was a little better....I'll just try one more take of that recording, because I want THIS part to sound a little bit better....

This essay lifts a bit of that burden. I don't have to write the best song of my life TODAY. All I have to do TODAY is write the best song I can write TODAY. This is not to say that I'm never going to practice again, and just become content with the level of my skills right now...on the contrary...I want to continue working and improving every single day. As my incredible piano teacher, Julie Bonk said, "It all depends on how hard you are willing to work- you can make yourself into yourself at a higher level." But I musn't allow myself to get discouraged. And neither should you. Progress takes time, and a great deal of effort. But progress does not occur by itself.

We all have the ability to be great at whatever it is we choose to do. "Genius", whatever that means to you, is not something that can be inherited, but something attained by...you guessed it...practice. Hyperlink to David Brooks from the New York Times, wrote, "What Mozart had, we now believe, was the same thing Tiger Woods had — the ability to focus for long periods of time and a father intent on improving his skills. Mozart played a lot of piano at a very young age, so he got his 10,000 hours of practice in early and then he built from there....the brain is phenomenally plastic. We construct ourselves through behavior....it’s not who you are, it’s what you do."

So, in other words...the sky is the limit! You can, quite literally, do ANYTHING. if you don't become the best _____ the world has ever seen, the efforts you make in one endeavor, may help you do something else later down the line. As my friend Claire Fowler suggested....Map out all the people you know and how you came to know them. Start with one person, and work backwards.

I'll take Claire for instance.

I met Claire by talking to my piano teacher, Julie, who told me how great a musician Claire was.

I met Julie because I played piano for a show produced by a woman named Judy Cohn.

I met Judy by doing plays at the JCC.

I started going to the JCC because I wanted to play tennis.

I started playing tennis because my friend Jake did it, and I thought it seemed cool.

I met Jake because I went to Temple Emanuel Preschool with him.

I went to Temple Emanuel Preschool because my parents were recommended to it by my Aunt June...

and the list goes on and on and on....

In other words..every single event has the potential to be a catalyst for one, or two, or thousands of other events in your life...no event is isolated....

So... go improve your skills at an old hobby, pick up a new hobby [as I am doing this right now....blogging!], go read a new book, go cook a new recipe, go meet a new person...life's possibilities are infinite. So...what are you waiting for...go unleash infinity!

Today is the first day of the rest of your life... right?

-JG