Hustle
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: art
The Boston Bruins traded their captain, first round draft pick, marquee player, and the fellow whom noone denies is nice guy with loads of natural talent. The team was not winning, it was not hungry and its leader was - apparently- not leading them. A Boston Globe columnist (I believe it was Bob Ryan) writes

But some expand the definition of ''talent" to include qualities that cannot be easily measured. To be fulfilled, talent has to be accompanied by intelligence, heart, determination, toughness, anticipation, resilience, and maybe just a little je ne sais quoi. Very seldom is the most ''talented" player on a championship team the ''best" player.

Sometimes it's just a matter of how much you want it.

I once watched Dave Cowens get 29 rebounds against Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes in the primes of their careers, then asked Bullets coach Gene Shue what would happen if a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Bob Lanier played as hard as Cowens did. Could they be stopped?

''Can't happen," Shue observed. ''Hustle is part of ability."

I'm not saying Joe Thornton didn't hustle, per se, but he didn't hustle , if you know what I mean. Not in a million years would he have beaten Dave Cowens to a rebound -- or loose puck. He is a floater, a clinician. As a potential 120-point scorer, Joe Thornton clearly has a place in the game. He's on the bus, but he can't drive it.

Now I don't know anything about all those basketball players- I hate the squeaky-shoe game- but I am logging this quote here because I am interested in talent, drive and potential and "WOW! You should do that professionally!" Expectations again. Lots of people have great talent at something and do not (for whatever reason) do it professionally. Many people do things professionally but have not as great a talent. Some people, the great ones, have talent and the luck, hustle, and support to do it professionally, but even, so only a very small number of those are able to - say, play in a pro sports league for more than 3 years (Does Blaine Lacher still play goalie somewhere? Does he enjoy it? That he was very good at it is not in question, that the NHL situation was somehow not a good fit for him is not in question, but if he is somewhere enjoying whatever he enjoyed out of stopping pucks, I'd be happy to know that.) - produce 2 excellent albums- write a second novel as good as their first- continue to develop in thier artwork and not get stuck in a formulaic rut of 'what sells' (see 'artists' such as Thomas Kinkade: the Painter of Light...if he ever were to grow, he's done for, but maybe he's OK with that, maybe what he gives us is what it is and that's all it is. Not everyone has to be, or is, GREAT who is "successful".). This is why we have decades and generations that are defined by the rise of certain people and thier work, making one different from another. Success cannot depend so much on audiences, which are paradoxical in that they are both quickly bored and simultaneously find more of the same very comforrting. So that leaves yourself to have to answer to.

What should one healthily expect from being good at something? I would suggest that expecting a lifetime of continued growth, achievement, attention and income is too much to resonably expect out of your gifts. So much of that kind of success depends on things outside yourself. If you can achieve the satisfaction and blessing of being able to work everyday at something you are good at, then that is the success that really matters the most. You can have 5 years of commercial success and 35 years of work success.

You can achieve at what you do, driven by loving what you do, or by achievement itself. I ran track in High School, I hated it, but I went back every year and lettered enough to get 7 letters across my two sports and the coveted blanket award. I did not love running, but I did enjoy the milestones, the completion of races and seasons. This is achievement for achievement's sake. With creating drawings and stories, they are painful too, but there is love there that isn't in running for me. It is not a shame that I gave up running and field hockey after high school, despite my 7 letters and "Blackstone Valley all-star Defenseman" status at Field hockey, my Distrcit E Athletic Director's Award and consistent 6th place finish at the all-league meets. I did not love it. Neither did I exactly light the track on fire. Maybe some people who go much farther in pro sports or other professions also do not love the playing so much as the achievemt of playing. Like that football player who quit the NFL because he couldn't smoke dope and play football.

That sounds stupid because so many people think they'd much rather be an NFL player than a (insert job here), yet this guy wanted to live a different lifestyle despite being very capable of achieving at football. Being an NFL football player, one must remember, is also only something most players do for a few years of their life. Confusion and disappointment come in because of the word "Being"- maybe "working as" an NFL football player or an NHL goalie, or a cast member of the touring company of the Lion King, or whatever, is more healthy. Or probably we just have to define our own successes.

A Nugget
Mood:  lucky
Now Playing: diane Taraz- Corinthians
Topic: art
I was making my Halloween costume- to be explained later- and deciding whether or not I was finished. Sometimes you want to finish before you ruin something, but there are things left unattempted because you are afraid to ruin them. Sometimes you feel very satisfied wth what you make, but then you think, I coudl stop now and be very happy, BUt it'd be just perfect if I did this one more thing, it's not so much to do...
I suppose the difference is confidence, or ideas. I decided to make it perfect by doign one more simple thing I was sure I wouldn;t ruin, and as I worked I said to myself, "This is fun. I haven't dressed for halloween in years! I am glad Jamie's party gave me a reason to do this work." And I thought that you can be as good at doing whatever you do as anyone, but if you have no reason to do it, well then its just much ado about nothing, or "if you could speak with the tongues of all the angels but have not love, you are no more than sounding gongs and tinkling cymbals." I thought of the people when i was at college my first year- at a very traditional art school: I transferred the following year due to finances and I am lucky I did- who could replicate extremely well, but always did still lifes and figures and landscapes that seemed pretty but devoid of reason and love. (Francisco de Goya- artists should be "inventors and no tservile copyists!") Well, I recognize NOW what they were devoid of, or that the interest in said subjects was contrived because the artists did not know what else to think, or were just young and still acquiescent to what has already been created for them. As artists, we are grateful for the loves and joys that give us a reason to make stuff.