Welcome groovy readers. Thanks for being here.
I am a person well acquainted with “beginner’s luck”. Let me explain. Several times in my life i have tried something and succeeded so spectacularly that folks thought I was a “natural”, then on the second try I’d come down to Earth.
The first time was while I was in the Air Force as a young man. I was showing a buddy some yoga to improve our skiing as a return this friend was going to show me how to high jump. One nice thing about being in the Air Force is that every Air Force base I was on had excellent gyms and sports facilities.
My buddy and I went to the track and found the high jump pit. We set the bar so ridiculously high because, as my buddy explained if I knew I was not going to make the jump then I could focus on the technique without worrying if I’d clear the bar.
Well, I cleared the bar and my friend said by a lot.
“I’ll bet you cleared your height. That’s amazing.”, he said.
So we put the bar up to my height and I tried again.
Not even close. I tried and tried and I could never get back to that level. The same thing happened to me several years later when some friends tried to introduce me to water skiing. The first time I got up and was doing fine. I even did a jump of the wake.
The boat driver said he’d never seen someone just get on a water ski and take off like that. Then I fell. Tried and tried and I could not get up again.
Last summer I had a breakthrough on the guitar. I tried to learn a new style (electric lead ala Carlos Santana) and all of a sudden it clicked. Man I was wailin’!
I’ve been practicing seven to ten hours a week since. The other night I was playing and I was doing OK. But I notices that my music did not quite have the spark or soul that I had when I first learned to play this way.
What is this all about. What is it about me that I am able to pick something up without thinking much about it and doing it very well, yet if I strive, work and put all my effort into it I fail.
Hmmm. If any readers have any insights . . . that would be great.
Never mix red wine with Oodo.
Earth Year 2014
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