Thought for the Day (Dec 20)

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: fulurum
Date: 21 Dec 99 - 06:50 PM

i don't know who said it but whatthey said was

if you can sing well enough to entertain yourself, well then your good enough. would go for playing too i guess.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: Peter T.
Date: 21 Dec 99 - 09:19 AM

The art critic, Meyer Schapiro had a very interesting essay on perfection in the arts, pointing out that most of the things we call perfect are really a mixture of all sorts of things -- Chartres Cathedral, for example, with two towers in completely different styles; War and Peace, an unholy mess of lectures and drama, and so on. The works sort of create their own perfection out of the imperfections. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Dec 99 - 12:48 AM

Actually... Socrates said that it was the ENEMA of the good.......kinda' like "good" goosed up a few notches.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: Pete Peterson
Date: 20 Dec 99 - 11:59 PM

I know it from somewhere in Plato. Socrates said "the best is the enemy of the good." I would like to be a perfectionist but as you know from my mistypings, I'm not.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: Dave Swan
Date: 20 Dec 99 - 09:48 PM

No less a sage than our own Big Mick once put my mind at ease when I was fretting about the quality of something I'd helped produce. Mick said "Don't let perfection stand in the way of the good." Pretty smart guy. E.S.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 20 Dec 99 - 08:24 PM

Mary, thank you very much for your complement. That was very kind.

Peter, I wrote down the title of that book and I do plan to seek it out. Thanks for the suggestion.
BB

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: MMario
Date: 20 Dec 99 - 04:06 PM

just think of that poor 'lil girl-possum, on christmas morning, with no present....

That's okay 'Spaw; you've had other stuff to think about I'm SURE!!!! I'll just tell Dido that it's traditional to get her presents on Twelthnight. It's her first Christmas, she won't know I'm fibbing.

* That's right doctor, he has conversations with a clay opposum shaped ocarina. No, we don't think he's dangerous, just delusional. the biggest trouble is, he insists that the 'possum has a brother.......*

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Dec 99 - 03:59 PM

Oh geeziz...the CAPE!!! I'll go to the post office tomorrow morning Mario!!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: MMario
Date: 20 Dec 99 - 03:55 PM

and so I thought to myself, well, I'm no good, but at least I don't blow up a 'possum's butt.....wait, I do blow up a 'possum's butt.....

never mind

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Dec 99 - 03:13 PM

So she says to the guy, "Hell, you're no worse than the rest of them."

WOW...What an ego boost! Hope he has the number for the Suicide Hotline handy.........

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: Marymac90
Date: 20 Dec 99 - 12:59 PM

Dear Bonnie,

I was so impressed by your words that I wrote them down as MY thought for today. I may also give these words to someone as a Christmas gift.

I love to sing, but my voice will not reliably go where it's supposed to. I have loads of unworthy feelings because of this (and many other things).

One reason I love sacred Harp singing is because they cheerfully accept singers of all abilities. Another is because they sing LOUD, so my mistakes don't stand out.

Next time I get hit with the "I'm unworthy" feeling, I'm going to try to remember your words. Thank you very much.

Love,

Mary McCaffrey

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Dec 99 - 12:24 PM

Peter, thanks for letting us know about this book and great quote! I will go look for it, today. Sounds really good. My in-for-a-penney-in-for-a-pound attitude for life, always gets me over performance jitters. I figure by the time I get up to sing, speak, or whatever that I have no choice but to go on, regardless of how nervous I may feel. I have a friend whose attorney friend always imagines everyone naked, the judge, the opposition, the jury, etc.; it seems so funny to him that he never gets nervous after that.

Bonnie, darlin, you are on the right track and I have it on good authority that it isn't going to take you near as long as you think on that banjo. Just keep being you!

luvyaKat

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: Peter T.
Date: 20 Dec 99 - 12:06 PM

Bonnie, you should get this book. I just found it in a reasonably cheap paperback. It is right up your alley -- the author is an old student of Chogyam Trungpa (the Tibetan Buddhist), and it has sections on physical exercise, meditation, right attitudes to music, etc., etc. It would fit in with your general work. I found it full of practical insight (and I don't say that very often about a book!) and compassion.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 20 Dec 99 - 11:54 AM

I think my best therapy has come from taking up the banjo. I am a beginner and it will take many years before I can play this instrument well. It is finally sinking into my head that I do not have to be outstanding in something to be worthy. That I need not be 'special' for others to love me.
All I have to do is be myself.

BB

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: MMario
Date: 20 Dec 99 - 10:46 AM

*laughing heartily*

had a bad case of pre-concert jitters recently, along with the other people I was to be singing with, until we heard another group (about whom the crowd was raving estacticly)...We all looked at each other, almost in unison said "We're no worse then they are, hell, we're BETTER!" and all calmed right down.

Subject: Thought for the Day (Dec 20)
From: Peter T.
Date: 20 Dec 99 - 10:26 AM

Once, when the conductor Arturo Toscanini and the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky were about to go onstage to perform together, Arturo turned to his colleague and said: "How are you feeling?". Gregor replied, " Terrible, because I'm no good." Toscanini said: "I'm no good either, but we're no worse than the rest of them. Let's go on."
- (from The Art Of Practicing, Madeline Bruser) (fabulous book).