Calvin and Hobbes once described summer as “Never enough time to do all the nothing you want.” Sometimes life seems the same way. The older you get the faster time and things flow around, over and under you. I have been back from Arizona almost six weeks now and after fixing the car, truck, yard, lawn mower and house, we seem to have skipped spring and went right into summer. It was 85 degrees here yesterday. I am still waiting to get started on my new business project and trying to motivate myself to be creative, dynamic and inspirational, at least to myself.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak to a student club at Metropolitan State University. A good friend of mine (Israel) is one of the faculty advisers to the club and each month they try to hold some type of event to help the students with both life and school. Israel noted in his closing comments to the group that he had realized school was more than just teaching subjects but that the students who went on to become successful in life had learned character and coping skills. Israel asked me to talk to the group. The subject of my talk was the role that discipline plays in our life.
Discipline is often associated with punishment. The discipline that I discussed is self-discipline. I view self-discipline as the commitment and ability to respond to our goals and desires in a meaningful way. Some people say that discipline is not needed but that motivation is needed. I see things more the other way around. It takes discipline to become good at anything in life including music, art, sports, dance, acting and business. It helps if you are passionate about what you are doing. Karen enjoys playing her dulcimer and practices about an hour each day. The amazing child prodigy Anke Chen practices five hours a day to play the piano. She is now eight years old but started playing at four. When you watch Anke, you see someone having fun and thoroughly enjoying what they are doing.
The problem I had when I was young was not realizing the discipline and dedication it took to become great at anything. Regardless of how much of a genius you are, regardless of how smart you are or how beautiful you are, without discipline you will eventually fail. You can survive on pure talent for only so long. The same goes for beauty and brains. They will only take you so far. Look around and you can see the “A list” people who have had life too easy and the only way they can stay on top is with drugs. Too many great artists and performers have succumbed to the perils of drugs. Self-discipline is a drug free remedy for a happy and fruitful life.
Now that summer is here, my writing class will start again, although our grand instructor (Dr. Carolyn Wedin) will not be attending due to illness. Carolyn will very much be there in memory. Her spirit will hover over each writer and guide us in the use of language and syntax. Over the years, I have leaned a great deal from these classes about writing and life.
Writing is an art that requires great self-discipline. There are many days when I don’t feel like writing. It is not always easy to come up with ideas, words, adjectives, descriptions, narrative, characters, plots, settings and action that will be interesting and unique. No one wants to hear a story that is boring or mundane. We read something because it takes us our of our life and puts us into the life of another person. (Of course, we may also read to learn something.) We can live vicariously in the character of whomever we are reading about. Today, you are living in my character. For a few moments, you are absorbed in my thoughts and feelings and to some degree you know what it is like to be me living in Frederic, Wisconsin, the summer of 2019.
And once upon a time, in a time long ago, two hearts met, and the meeting changed the whole world.
Every time, a writer and a reader meet, it is like two hearts meeting and the world can never be the same again.
“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” –— Anais Nin
Aging Capriciously 