I found a fork in the road- and I'm taking it. :)

There are people in the world who for lack of drive or education or support or level of talent and skill react in what we often think of as the artistic temperament. People who are perfectionist only in their agonizing. People who have never forgiven themselves for their imperfections- and therefore cannot forgive others.

I had a brother - he died this year at the age of 72- who was like that. Most of his life he was unpleasant to be around. (I had four brothers - and three of them were great.) This one was a bully and ran roughshod over others. The best thing he ever did was not to marry or to make a long term commitment. There were times in our lives when he and I didn't speak for 10 years.

For the last 30 years or more of his life he never had a drink, mostly because when he drank he didn't know when to quit. After a couple of DWIs he stopped entirely. He smoked for 45 or more years- and developed bronchial asthma and then finally emphesema. At various times he had tried to quit smoking and chewed nicotine gum and took various kinds of stop-smoking pills. Once he said that he had to stop taking the pills in order to have a decent smoke. *g* When he finally got to the point that one drag on a cigaretted sent him into a paroxysm of coughing he quit per force.

That said, there were some things about him that were good. I remember when he was artistic - he sketched very well - I remember when he sang -in a gentle voice- and he was a good guitarist. He loved horses and dogs- the time I watched him gentle a mustang mare was an eyeopener for me. He was good with children as long as they were little and admired him unquestioningly- when they were older, he was impossible with them, abusive and harsh and they all avoided him.

So. Did this man have an "artistic temperament"?