Eadarian Network

Hello my friend,

Welcome to the 8th installment of The Creative Journey, the experience of one Charles Yerkes, Eadarian Poet, perpetuator, and otherwise mildly creative and excessively modest personage.

In coming up with the topic for this installment, I was reminded of a lesson that took me a very long time to learn, to even be made aware of. And if I had learned it earlier – who knows where this creative endeavor might now be. Though perhaps if I had learned it earlier I’d be doing other things, I would probably have spent many years as a lighting designer for the theatre. And who knows where else that may have led. Though I would not be who I am today and this venture I’m currently in would be other than it is – if at all – and that would be a sad thing.

So I guess I really learned it right on time. Anyway, it is a lesson I want to share. So that perhaps another creative and talented personage will not walk away from their gifting simply for the not knowing of it.

In looking back, it is a lesson that is amazingly simple; it is one you may already know. It is one I should have known early, early on. Yet it is also one that is so obvious to those who know it – that they may simply never mention it to anyone because it never occurs to them to even think about it, never mind think to mention it.

Sort of like picking up a cup of coffee; no one really thinks about it – they just do it. And besides, perhaps, telling you to be careful because it’s very hot, no one is going to tell you how to pick up a cup. They are not going to tell you how to open your hand, how to place your fingers on the cup or in the handle. It isn’t even thought about; so intrinsic is the performance of this action. I hope that illustrates it well, if not – just ask me for clarification and I’ll try again.

Here is the lesson, just because an action or activity is very difficult, this does not mean you are not talented and gifted in the performing of said activity. What being talented means is that your solution will be stunning and magnificent not merely adequate. It does not mean that what you do magnificently will be easy.

You often hear it said “Wow, he makes that look so easy.” Yet if you were to talk to the ones ‘making it look so easy’, you would find out how hard they have to work to make it appear so.

Back to lighting design, my final project was to light a scene from Ibsen, (a noteworthy playwright). And it was the hardest thing I had ever done up to that point. Catching the subtleties and nuances of the script had me reaching for aspirin every time I turned around. It was so hard that I became convinced that I had no talent for lighting design. Yet the finished design, not only earned me an ‘A’ and an invitation to return the following year to learn more, it was (very modestly speaking) the best final design produced by that class. Yet because it was so very hard, I became convinced that light design was not for me.

It also did not help that I had no one to encourage me and tell me what I am sharing in this installment. But that is a topic for another day. One day I will have to tell you how in a school for the fine arts, I was the truest non-conformist on campus.

Also, there are many different meanings to the term ‘hard work’. It can mean anything from the grueling physical work that leaves you spent at the end of the day, to things that can leave you mentally spent, to things that simply require massive amounts of continual time and energy, which will not necessarily leave you exhausted.

Well, I’m going a little long, so I need to wrap this up.

So, if you are struggling in an endeavor, take heart, know that this does not mean you are not talented enough – that you are not best suited to the endeavor. Struggle through, then step back and rest a moment as what you have done shines forth and is a source of wonderment and gratitude from others.

Until next time my friend,
Peace to you.

Live Nobly and Live Well

Charles

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To choose a past installment(s) of The Creative Journey click here. To view a Quote of the Week, click here.

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