Shooting Blanks

I never thought this would happen. Just when I thought I was going to have an entry for my blog, I'm stricken with writer's block. The funny thing about writer's block is that I have heard of many people getting it but I myself have never really had to deal with it. When I was in college and had to write my ass off, I was able to come up with topics and journal entries easily.....no problem. Now I am having to deal with it (writer's block) and it's no fun. Wait a minute, I think I'm cured. It seems that all I needed was a can of diet soda. I just read the back of the can several times and have yet to find "inspiration" as a listed ingredient but I know it's in there somewhere. First of all my good friend Chad deserves an apology. I have been a crappy friend and I apologize. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. Okay off to the blog topic for today.

Have you ever seen something really impressive that makes you think about the person who is doing it? I guess what I mean by that is when you see the short clip on the news of the seven year old that can play the piano better than most people who have been practicing for 30 years? Maybe it's the person that gets a perfect score on their SAT and then proceed to kick ass on the ACT and get another perfect score? I actually read about that kid. You see this stuff and it makes you think how in the world did someone get to be so good in one area of their life? This got me thinking about a couple of things.

I have been listening to a bunch of old music as of late. More specifically Jimi Hendrix when he had this group called A Band of Gypsies. They were pretty incredible. They had this chemistry that other bands just don't have and to my knowledge they were not together for a huge amount of time. All three members were equally amazing at their instruments and of course everyone knows how good Jimi was. I was able to find a taping of performance that was done at the Fillmore over the course of two days in 1969/70. A New Year's day and eve performance. As many know Jimi is left handed and plays his guitar upside down and backwards. But what was more impressive is that his damn eyes are closed most of the time yet. Maybe I'm easily amused but in the last 30 years or so nobody else has come along that can play like that guy given all of the other variables. Just watch.



So what gives? Why is he a master at playing the guitar? Why is the Russian guy that won a Fields Medal a while back so good at math? It's funny because people look at these individuals and think that they must be doing something that "we" are not. There is no possible way that these people were destined for greatness from the minute they were born. I hear this all the time. If that person is bigger than me it must be something he or she is taking. If that person is smarter it's a computer program or some method of memorization they are utilizing. Sometimes there is no reason. That is a hard pill to swallow but some are just destined to do great things and half the time they don't realize it until it's too late.

I've been thinking about this for a while. To all those people who are destined for greatness, don't let it pass you by. Embrace whatever gifts God gave you and run with it. Sorry for the super serious tone of this blog but it just turned out this way. I promise the next entry will be funny or something...err...yeah something like that. Until next time.

JD