Today. What did I do? I got up, made the coffeee & got some guitar practice in. Over the years I have neglected the guitar. I love it so, and truly am adduicted to it. I juust wish I the command of it that I do of photography. There are only so many hours in a day & they get consumed & eaten up. Then suddenyly one finds his or her self at my age ( I don't want to say it), and realize you are most certainly counting downward, not upward.
The biggest problem I have had wth the guitar & music has been fear. Read that as Stage Fright. I once was afraid of the water. In fact I was afraid of the deep end of the bathtub. Why? Because I didn't know how to swim. Well eventually I overcame that fear, but I have retained a respect for it and know my limitations. Thus, I know how to prepare for a maritime related crisis should I experience one. I do little things. For instance, I know now that one does not need much of a flotation device to keep one's head above water. Suppose you take the ferry from Cape Vincent, NY to Wolfe Island in Canada. It is laden with cars. The journey is brief. You can remain in your car, or stand on the deck of the craft. Like all public, passenger carrying boat, they have life preservers stowed aboard. You are informed of their location & what to do in an emergency. Well, I have thought about such emergencys. For starters, when aboard a ferry I get out of my car. Should it capsize, I don't want to have to escape a submerged vehicle just to get on the deck of a sunken ship. Usually one doesn't have time to fight through a panicking mob to wrestle a life jcket on as a crisis is unfolding. Imagine a jumbo jet is on it's way crashing to earth from 30,000 feet. Everyone is screaming. Is that the time to go rummaging for a parachute and trying to find an exit? Suppose you find one but you are tossed from the plane & hurling toward the Earth. It will be a real challenge trying to strap it on while you are plunging to your demise. Well, the same goes for a PFD on a boat. (PFD: Personal Flotation Device). Amid the panic, if you are fortunate enough to get your hands on a PFD you still have to manage to hang on to it if not actually wear it.
Anyhow, what I am leading up to is this. Anytime I know I will be boarding a boat I put a plastic grocery store bag in my pocket. They compress down to almost nothing. But in an emergency if you fell overboard, you could easily trap enought air in it to keep you afloat easier than being without it. It's a smple safety net. The problem I have with the guitar & music is that I have never really created, or came up with a similar safety net, so to speak. So I have good voages with the guitar and I have some panicky times with the instrument in which the music washes me overboard.
When it comes to photography I am supremely confident in my abilities. Drop me into any situation and instruct me to meak a suitable photo for such & such's needs and I don't care what it is, I will do it. Or give it my best shot. I have a realistic & pragmatic approach to it. The guitar & music remain a challenge.
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