Wednesday, 6th February 2008

10.12

Bredonborough.

The first necessary foundation of craft: reliability.
The second: repeatability – beginners’ luck is fine for beginners.
The third: response-ability - our capacity to respond to challenges & opportunities.

How do we establish a craft discipline? Practising.
What is the first necessity of practising?    Regularity.

A regular practice addresses:

knowing the instrument;
knowing the vocabulary
knowing the repertoire;
knowing the subject;
listening;
improvising.

A day of sunshine & blue skies: brisk, delightful.

Something has been increasingly clear since my return from Sant Cugat - the world has changed, is moving into its next cycle. How do I know that? No idea, is the quick answer. But I base my life-choices on sensing shifts in the atmosphere. Several undertakings, plans & choices, are beginning to make increasing sense. Even, my future is appearing in front of me.

14.16  Catching up, continuing to organise.

Carrying one item from the car, originating in Romain’s Emporium of Antiquities & Delight, all on my own to the dressing room I…

II…

… a period gentleman’s dressing room cabinet.

This room is being organised to the next level, including hanging clothes worn in NYC 1978 & 1979 & with The LofG. Plus my grammar school cap came out of a box, placed there in 1999.

Is it a chair?...

Is it a step ladder?...

Both! It’s a metamorphic chair.

Packing / preparing for the next journey.

17.51  E-frenzy.

From a Crafty who was in Sant Cugat last week… how to prevent the process from going off the track?

From the reply… It is necessary to define the aim, clearly & simply, right at the beginning. This way, if we find ourselves beginning to drift & lose momentum (which is inevitable) we can refer back to the aim & use it as our point of (re)orientation. So, we must use our intelligence & discrimination when establishing our aim. Is this aim possible for me? Is this aim realistic + 10%? And we need information, from someone who has gone this way before; perhaps an instructor or mentor.

Then, if we commit ourselves to the aim, the commitment must be honoured. There can be no doubts. In the Great Divide, where we are too far from the beginning to go back & too far from the end to go forwards, aim defines the way & commitment keeps us on track.

Then, we present our work for verification. If our work is acknowledged, we move to completion. If our work is insufficient or inadequate, the process unravels.

And from a Crafty, who is becoming successful in their professional life:

… there have been some new developments in my life and wondering if you have any thoughts. The issue is success. I have hit a place in my professional life where I am becoming successful… This is a good thing but also of concern.  Success is also scaring me. Now I do know what some of the personal emotional triggers are and I’m dealing with that but, there also seems to be connection to something much greater – bigger than me and not really about me? I was just wondering if you have any thoughts about this or success in general.

From the reply…

Firstly, success is an opportunity.

Secondly, it comes with responsibility. Not everyone is prepared to seize the opportunity, or accept the responsibility. Much of this has to do with the conditions of our early education & socialisation within the family.

Thirdly, good work is utterly impersonal. It has nothing to do with us, or our efforts. We are serving our calling, our profession, and “success” suggests that our capacity has been judged sufficient by a community of our peers.

I agree, we act on behalf of something far greater than ourselves. A temptation, a problem, with success is that we may begin to believe our success has something to do with personal merits. I have even known some who began to believe their press, this when they were themselves employing press officers!

So, we return to the opportunity & the responsibility, continuing to serve the aim.

19.03  To a pal, who is following a project of considerable value to them, and also a high challenge…

If we see something, part of the energy in the seeing becomes available to us to forward the project. This even when, as is likely, no one else is interested –because they haven’t seen it! And if we see something that needs to be done, we are halfway committed to addressing it. The responsibility for making what-is-possible become-actual falls mainly to us.

19.15  The inbox is down to 111. Enough. To practising.

22.10 Done.

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