ShareYour World – 18th April

Let me start this post by saying that I am done with COVID, but it doesn’t seem to be done with me. I have good and bad days. This wasn’t a good one, nor was yesterday but I’m feeling better now than I did earlier. I hasn’t even been a month since I came down with it, so I shouldn’t be surprised.

It’s just that there are things that need doing and they aren’t getting done. I have to give myself my own best advice: take it easy, sleep and stop eating jelly beans. Especially the jelly beans.

Here are the weekly questions:

Do you have a special talent for example, music, art, singing, dress making, pottery and so on.

Writing, drawing, and some minor ability in music. Photography was — for me — an outgrowth of drawing and painting. I had been doing a lot of painting before Owen was born, but once he became an active toddler, it was hopeless. I couldn’t keep an easel in place because toddlers are wild things who think knocking things over, or pulling them down, is a rare bit of hilarity. They don’t seem to get why you aren’t as enthusiastic as they are.

Without an “art room,” I had to put away everything every night. It sucked the fun out of the experience. I got a bit mopey.

Just about the same time, a friend gave me a camera. And old, non-digital Praktika camera with a superb f2.8 Zeiss 50mm lens. Photography didn’t require a special room. I had a friend who developed film for me. Hofstra had a darkroom no one used, so I did my own printing. It satisfied my art needs. It took me another 50 years to remember that “Hey, didn’t you used to draw pictures?” Of course my wrists and arms had taken a lot of abuse over the years and it turned out, you can’t just go back to doing what you did when you were a spritely young thing. But at least I realized I could still draw, even with a half century’s recess.

What was your best subject at school and was it your favourite?

Art and English. English and art. They didn’t teach music — except for chorus — in high school or elementary school, but I got piano lessons at home and I was a music major for a few years in college, until I realized I didn’t have the talent to make it my life’s work.

In a lot of ways, it was a relief. I knew I didn’t have the talent to make it in classical piano. I never had passion for composing or conducting. I might have done better on a different instrument since I have tiny hands, but I also lacked dedication. Music requires dedication. In the end, that was my real downfall.

I always wanted to be a writer. I suspect that the failure of my college to have a journalism course landed me in music. Now, of course, they have many writing courses, but I never wanted to “study” writing. I was sure if I studied it, I’d lose my passion for it. As soon as I could form words, I turned them into stories. After I gave up trying to be the musician I wasn’t, I began writing and it’s still what I do and in many ways, who I am.

Do you like to cook?

Yes, but I’d like more time off. I’ve been cooking almost every day for a very long time. I’m “cooked out.”

Do you get riled easily?

It depends on what’s going on. I used to get more crazed about politics, but these days, I’ve planted my head firmly in the sand because I can’t deal with a constant level of emotional agitation.

I can’t fix what’s broken. My whole generation couldn’t fix it. I don’t know if humanity as a whole can fix it, but I’m sure if it happens, I’ll be long gone.

Gratitude

Every now and then, a good idea assaults me. Usually, it’s a good idea so obvious, I have no idea why I didn’t get to it a lot sooner. Yesterday, I realized I couldn’t take pictures of birds anymore because my orchids — and the lily — had completely blocked the window. Then, it crossed my addled mind that I could move the plants to the other side of the glass doors where I can’t take outdoor pictures anyway because of the screens. It took me all of five minutes to get everything moved around. Why I didn’t do it years ago I will never know. So thank you, old brain, for pointing out the obvious.

Categories: #SYW, #Writing, Anecdote, Arts, Drawings, Music, Q & A, questions

Tags: #Photography, art, humor, Marilyn Armstrong, talent