Skilling Up
A rather interesting epiphany came upon me the other day while walking to college to give tutorials.
As I walked I heard a choir singing, I watched people training tennis and I watched a man learning how to use a harness to climb up trees. It dawned upon me, that for whatever peculiar reason, I had never truly appreciated all these acts. I had always tried to perhaps grasp a deeper understanding as to the meaning of the action. Was there truly a beauty to the voice? Was there some sort of motion in tennis that was awesome? Why would I be impressed by a guy climbing a tree???
But suddenly I did admire them. It is not that there was a secret in the song or poetry in the motion. It was the actions themselves that were what was admirable. There was no real meaning in the song sung for me. It was in latin and in the end all these songs sound like they were derived from Star Wars (if they are exciting) or Canon in D (if they are melodic - damn you fox for showing that vid, I'm starting to hear Pachebel in random places too!). Although I play tennis, I never watch it. Nor soccer or any other sport. I just don't appreciate too much about the games. But then I realised I had it wrong - it's not that soccer or tennis have any intrinsic meaning whatsoever. It's a ball... you try to get it to some spatial dimension while others try to stop you. That's it. That's all.
However, I realised, it is not the game/activity I admire. It is the skill. The effort and the training it takes to get there. Contemplating upon it, I realise now the furious amount of training it takes to do such feats. To control voice, to compose music, to play an instrument, to hit a ball just right, to know how to climb a frigging tree!
A honing of skill and the discipline to see it through. Very admirable. I like.
As I walked I heard a choir singing, I watched people training tennis and I watched a man learning how to use a harness to climb up trees. It dawned upon me, that for whatever peculiar reason, I had never truly appreciated all these acts. I had always tried to perhaps grasp a deeper understanding as to the meaning of the action. Was there truly a beauty to the voice? Was there some sort of motion in tennis that was awesome? Why would I be impressed by a guy climbing a tree???
But suddenly I did admire them. It is not that there was a secret in the song or poetry in the motion. It was the actions themselves that were what was admirable. There was no real meaning in the song sung for me. It was in latin and in the end all these songs sound like they were derived from Star Wars (if they are exciting) or Canon in D (if they are melodic - damn you fox for showing that vid, I'm starting to hear Pachebel in random places too!). Although I play tennis, I never watch it. Nor soccer or any other sport. I just don't appreciate too much about the games. But then I realised I had it wrong - it's not that soccer or tennis have any intrinsic meaning whatsoever. It's a ball... you try to get it to some spatial dimension while others try to stop you. That's it. That's all.
However, I realised, it is not the game/activity I admire. It is the skill. The effort and the training it takes to get there. Contemplating upon it, I realise now the furious amount of training it takes to do such feats. To control voice, to compose music, to play an instrument, to hit a ball just right, to know how to climb a frigging tree!
A honing of skill and the discipline to see it through. Very admirable. I like.