Being Realistic
I woke up two mornings ago with the strong desire to dunk a basketball on a regulation rim. Let me make it known now that I am a thirty-four-year-old, six-foot tall golf enthusiast who has hands big enough to navigate a guitar but too small to adequately palm a ball. I also don't jump that high.
Still, with some harder work, intense training, and the aide of a pickup truck I just might be able to land the simplest of two-handed jams.
But while I am in shape enough to have turned in a 22:37 5k a couple of weeks ago (and then pulled a muscle in my back two days later getting something out of my glove box), the truth is that I'm past my basketball prime (which lasted for about one day when on my eighteenth birthday I scored sixteen points for my high school rec team). And if I'm going to choose a lofty goal, it should have something to do with endurance (like running across the state of Oregon or playing over 100 holes of golf in a day) or weird skill (maybe setting a world record for peeling oranges in an hour??) rather than a skilled athletic endeavor.
It wasn't too many years ago that I had another lofty goal. I wanted to write a great novel (check), quit my day job (check - although it was sort of by accident), sell thousands of copies (check if and only if you cross out the last "s" on thousands), inspire kids to write (check), and become famous (uncheck).
Two more novels and a couple of school visits as an author later, I've found a day job I LOVE and am not so passionate for fame. But I still desire to inspire and I really enjoy writing. For me it is where vocabulary and story telling me math (I'll explain this more in an upcoming Blog entry, but the jist is that writing a story is much like balancing an algebraic equation). So when I was talking with an artist about collaborating on some picture books, I want to make sure she understood that this was more of a profitable hobby than a job (although I still pay taxes on my income).
And I'm OK with that. Writing taps into my creativity, helps me learn new things (like how hard it is to break beer bottles), and lets me use all the names my wife shot down for our kids. Plus, at least some people get a kick out of reading my work.
And (this is where I tie in my intro) unlike athletic pursuits which definitely have a steady climb and eventually a drastic fall off, I can keep improving at my writing for the rest of my life. Which will hopefull include a least one highlight reel slam. Time for 200 squats followed by some leg lifts.
Still, with some harder work, intense training, and the aide of a pickup truck I just might be able to land the simplest of two-handed jams.
But while I am in shape enough to have turned in a 22:37 5k a couple of weeks ago (and then pulled a muscle in my back two days later getting something out of my glove box), the truth is that I'm past my basketball prime (which lasted for about one day when on my eighteenth birthday I scored sixteen points for my high school rec team). And if I'm going to choose a lofty goal, it should have something to do with endurance (like running across the state of Oregon or playing over 100 holes of golf in a day) or weird skill (maybe setting a world record for peeling oranges in an hour??) rather than a skilled athletic endeavor.
It wasn't too many years ago that I had another lofty goal. I wanted to write a great novel (check), quit my day job (check - although it was sort of by accident), sell thousands of copies (check if and only if you cross out the last "s" on thousands), inspire kids to write (check), and become famous (uncheck).
Two more novels and a couple of school visits as an author later, I've found a day job I LOVE and am not so passionate for fame. But I still desire to inspire and I really enjoy writing. For me it is where vocabulary and story telling me math (I'll explain this more in an upcoming Blog entry, but the jist is that writing a story is much like balancing an algebraic equation). So when I was talking with an artist about collaborating on some picture books, I want to make sure she understood that this was more of a profitable hobby than a job (although I still pay taxes on my income).
And I'm OK with that. Writing taps into my creativity, helps me learn new things (like how hard it is to break beer bottles), and lets me use all the names my wife shot down for our kids. Plus, at least some people get a kick out of reading my work.
And (this is where I tie in my intro) unlike athletic pursuits which definitely have a steady climb and eventually a drastic fall off, I can keep improving at my writing for the rest of my life. Which will hopefull include a least one highlight reel slam. Time for 200 squats followed by some leg lifts.
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