Journal sielwolf's Journal: Smart Kids 10
Everyone here's a smart kid.
You shrug, "I'm not that smart."
And you have a gift.
"Eh. I guess."
Talent is like every other rare sought-after commodity: it both at once attracts and repulses. Wealth, beauty. We love these things. No, we adore them. We covet them. We know that they are a finite quantity and so we seek them out. But their rarity also makes us... hedge our bets. We know full well that there is a chance that we may never be talented enough, beautiful enough, wealthy enough. So we hold these things at arms length. Worst would be for us to become frothing envious of something that we never come to possess. The thing is subjective because it is just not the thing; it is the thing and our relationship to it. The distance is how it appears to us (a speck of faint light, far off; in our grasp, brilliant, blotting out all else). There is no real truth to any of it, we know. But what we do see is everyone else, aligned as constellations, hearts, satellites, in their orbits around it. We can gauge distances. We know the record, who is closer, warmed more at the bosom. There is a measureable quantity and we all fear to be found wanting.
Money. Polite company doesn't talk about money. A friend's wife drunk on three glasses of wine pulls out a check for contract work she did.
"Look how much I made for," holds up fingers, "twenty hours of work." Proud. Smiling.
Her husband quickly grabs it and puts it away. "He doesn't want to see that."
To humiliate me? Or would it be worse: "Oh nice. Maybe in a few years you'll be making as much as I do an hour."
A poor measure of all the human characteristics we treasure. The quality of a man. But money is finite and absolute and though it does not say anything about us, it speaks clearly in a striking voice much much else.
So polite company doesn't talk about money.
The same with talent. Eight students at easels, drawing a still life in tones and shades of one color (blues, oranges. Choose one and only one). Two hours painting. Ten minute open critique period at the end. "Let's take a look at what everybody is doing"
"Um..."
So this is an intro to painting class. All skill levels welcome. Noncredit. The actual composition is from no art outside of decades ago mandated art classes to dabblers to those who decided to pick it up again after a detour in occupation.
So what do you say when you can paint? Not just paint but compose, calculate tone, understand the physics of the color, of the brush. You are more interested in how the paint works. How capture how you see it. Or think it should be seen?
They are impressed. Of the eight students you where the only one to attempt to paint the bust. You draw faces all the time. You understand the human face. So many of the steps are already done for you.
Talent can be abrasive. Yes, the adolescent fear of difference. But talent too can be sweetly off putting. It deliniates the gulf, a wide invisible chasm. They may praise you and at the same time begin to drift away from the shore. What you have done has shown how alien you are. Somehow we are not of the same species.
"I loved that. How did you do that... with the eye?"
How can you take critique? "Are you going to hang it up?" Actually I don't think it's that good. I think that it is a reasonable first stab at painting for the first time in nine years. But there is much to be desired. If we worked in a dark room and with only a single spot of light, it would be much better: its easier to disguise missteps in tone when working with high contrast. This was fine but left much to be desired.
You wouldn't hang this painting on the wall. Right now you are thinking about saving yourself the 2 bucks and painting over it. Perfect your technique. At this level, the rules have changed.
You can't say that. "This isn't good. I plan on destroying this. I will level this forest and plant another. You couldn't do this. If you finally did, know I would destroy it as well. Just think of what I would do then with what you just painted here."
The rules change but the metric is identical. They would never live up to your standards. And they at some point realize it. And soon they too will drift away. The mountain is very high. It pierces the clouds up into thin air and the gaps of empty space. But it is an island. From its very top you can see all the foreign lands. They can all see how close to the heavens you are. Is that some how glorious? You can see how distant all of them are from you. And all together, at the same time. That is how each of us go about this life.
Perspective plays a part... (Score:2)
I've spent many hours contemplating the things you speak of here. I've watched people in many situations, studied their actions, pondered their logic and motive. Extrapolated unknowns based on theories derived from data gathered in prior observations, and then researched the facts to compare to my assumptions. Each time, refining the theories so that eventually I might better understand human behaviour.
I've noticed that in most cases, people really do think the grass is greaner on the other side of the
Smarts kids (Score:2)
i liked it (Score:1)
i think it would be nice if i could strike a balance between feeling my work is good enough for where i am and realizing it isn't the last thing i'll ever create.
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My issue is that I always feel like I should be working on the next piece. My mind wanders. I need to focus on the current one and turn it
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The issue is security (Score:1)
Or rather, insecurity. These chasms between need not be strategic division points. But more frequently, they are.
They may praise you and at the same time begin to drift away from the shore. What you have done has shown how alien you are.
But to those of Us (the *royal* us) who are either Alien and weird or collectors of the aliens and weirdos, it attracts rather than repels.
They would never live up to you
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SO, you busy Thursday?
Thursday? I can do Thursday. Preferences? Dogsfishheadfish? Somewhere's else? I'm game for anything with a *makes drinking
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That's the thing! When people roll up and crash at the crib, now there is no question. Infact, they each get BRAND NEW Shampoo, Conditioner, lotion,hand soap, body soap, volumizer, bath salts, shoe cloth, etc. Because i DON'T want you all up in my dandruff shampoo, bizaatch!
My vote is the Fishzz0rz because they have something new and I'm also interested in seeing what they have aged. But there's also GROWLERS in olde town gburg (1/2
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One would hope teh mekkzalitza would join us, but never underestimate the power of harDCore to be a turnoff to her finer sensibilities. But I'll do my best to deliver.