Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things?
I feel better now, but my back is still a bit sore, and it seemed to get worse when I practised. I love the feeling of "flow" you get when you play something you already know well, so I always play something familiar during my hour of practice. I try to play for an hour at least, since it seems the appropriate length for a session. It gives me time to fool around a little, but there is also enough time to learn something new. I only play songs and dances, so none of them are all that long.
Did you notice that I missed my usual day of answering the 50 questions meme? Yesterday I had to write a short entry, because of the back-ache, and I had too much to say (nothing new there, constraint is something I should strive for more). However, my answer for today is, that I'm learning to worry more about doing the right things. I'm very critical of myself in some respects, and for a very long time, I tried to do the impossible, never convinced of that I don't have to be the best possible me in all areas of my life, all the time. Being less than perfect is the normal state of human nature, and the only way to inner growth is to accept that.
Things are looking up for David Copperfield.
He has gone away from home with the family servant, Peggoty, and it seems that he will like living with Peggoty's brother and the whole household, who live in a boat turned upside-down. It's really a picture of extreme poverty, but Dickens draws it beautifully. Yesterday I thought a little about Dickens' style, and I think he is best enjoyed as a writer, not so much in movie adaptations. I have seen Oliver! performed live on stage, and I've seen Oliver Twist as a film and David Copperfield as a mini-series, but they are somehow a little stuffy. Perhaps that's inevitable, since he wrote his books a long time ago, and any actors, directors or producers trying to portray his world are of so much younger generations. Maybe we just don't get Dickens these days. The society in which he grew up and wrote was so different from ours, that we can't really understand his way of putting things.
I wonder if I have been reading the wrong books, but it seems to me that character was something that was written about a lot in the old days, and now it seems that everyone writes about experiences and feelings. Do any of you have that feeling? Are we growing to think that character doesn't really exist as anything else than a sum of our personal experiences, instead of being, at least in part, something inherited, that can be built and altered? I know that the religious point of view remains the same: character is something that can be developed, and ought to be developed, by fighting sin and embracing virtue. But since many people nowadays aren't religious, or even know what religions teach about these things, maybe we are changing our minds. Maybe we don't think we have souls, or whatever you choose to call it, but are born as tabula rasa, clean slates, to be filled with data, to which we only respond. I think it's a turn for the worse. What do you think?
I'm happy to welcome one more LJ friend! I also know now that all of my friends have at least looked at this blog, so thank you all for taking an interest! Tomorrow is the weekend again, and I haven't a clue as to what I'm going to do and who I'm going to see. I only know that I'm going to continue knitting. I started on a scarf for mom. I know I said I was going to knit her a pair of stockings, but I've been at home all day with my sore back, so I didn't buy any yarn. I have a lot of leftover yarns in shades of blue and grey, so I'm knitting a striped scarf, from side to side, not from end to end. I cast on 350 stitches and it's all plain knitting. Dull in a way, but it will turn out nice and warm, and I think she'll like it. Have a good weekend and see you tomorrow!
Did you notice that I missed my usual day of answering the 50 questions meme? Yesterday I had to write a short entry, because of the back-ache, and I had too much to say (nothing new there, constraint is something I should strive for more). However, my answer for today is, that I'm learning to worry more about doing the right things. I'm very critical of myself in some respects, and for a very long time, I tried to do the impossible, never convinced of that I don't have to be the best possible me in all areas of my life, all the time. Being less than perfect is the normal state of human nature, and the only way to inner growth is to accept that.
Things are looking up for David Copperfield.
He has gone away from home with the family servant, Peggoty, and it seems that he will like living with Peggoty's brother and the whole household, who live in a boat turned upside-down. It's really a picture of extreme poverty, but Dickens draws it beautifully. Yesterday I thought a little about Dickens' style, and I think he is best enjoyed as a writer, not so much in movie adaptations. I have seen Oliver! performed live on stage, and I've seen Oliver Twist as a film and David Copperfield as a mini-series, but they are somehow a little stuffy. Perhaps that's inevitable, since he wrote his books a long time ago, and any actors, directors or producers trying to portray his world are of so much younger generations. Maybe we just don't get Dickens these days. The society in which he grew up and wrote was so different from ours, that we can't really understand his way of putting things.
I wonder if I have been reading the wrong books, but it seems to me that character was something that was written about a lot in the old days, and now it seems that everyone writes about experiences and feelings. Do any of you have that feeling? Are we growing to think that character doesn't really exist as anything else than a sum of our personal experiences, instead of being, at least in part, something inherited, that can be built and altered? I know that the religious point of view remains the same: character is something that can be developed, and ought to be developed, by fighting sin and embracing virtue. But since many people nowadays aren't religious, or even know what religions teach about these things, maybe we are changing our minds. Maybe we don't think we have souls, or whatever you choose to call it, but are born as tabula rasa, clean slates, to be filled with data, to which we only respond. I think it's a turn for the worse. What do you think?
I'm happy to welcome one more LJ friend! I also know now that all of my friends have at least looked at this blog, so thank you all for taking an interest! Tomorrow is the weekend again, and I haven't a clue as to what I'm going to do and who I'm going to see. I only know that I'm going to continue knitting. I started on a scarf for mom. I know I said I was going to knit her a pair of stockings, but I've been at home all day with my sore back, so I didn't buy any yarn. I have a lot of leftover yarns in shades of blue and grey, so I'm knitting a striped scarf, from side to side, not from end to end. I cast on 350 stitches and it's all plain knitting. Dull in a way, but it will turn out nice and warm, and I think she'll like it. Have a good weekend and see you tomorrow!