Improvising

Getting better at the drum set is a long and arduous process if all you do is improvise. When I just play, I'm not expanding my musical horizons and growing. I am working off of what I have learned and synthesizing those experiences. Is that bad? No, in fact it is often times a very enjoyable experience. But it is not helpful if you want to grow.

When you are talking you are not listening. When I am writing on this blog I am not reading other people's ideas. I think that is one of the reasons why it is so unnatural right now.

Conceptual illusions

Check out this leaflet that was used in a Senate campaign in 1950 that supposedly worked.

Are you aware that Claude Pepper is known all over Washington as a shameless extravert? Not only that, but this man is relably reported to practice nepotism with his sister-in-law, and he has a sister who was once a thespian in wicked New York. Worst of all, it is an established fact that Mr. Pepper before his marriage habitually practiced celivacy (AARP Bulletin, 1989, p. 14, 16)

Now THAT'S funny.

Chapters

Is graduation really worth the extra emotional baggage?

It's like when people ask you if you feel old on your birthday. I feel one day older than yesterday, age comes with maturity, and maturity isn't a matter of days but instead of experiences, of failures and learning. So on my birthday do I feel older? No.

A chapter is ending in my life? Not so much, waking up the day after commencement will feel like waking up the day before. We are a culture obsessed with milestones and birthday celebrations. All about the starting gun and the finish line. The race is in the journey isn't it?

A good sprinter also practices getting out of the blocks and leaning in for a finish. I suppose I just don't want to deal with farewell. So I guess I should start saying it now, "farewell".