As part of my “sharpening the saw”, I am realizing the things that I am not good at. Part of the sharpening is deciding whether I have the mettle to improve my skill level in activities which I have picked up haphazardly. I can either get better at playing the guitar or get rid of the guitars completely.

One activity that I am not good at is running. I ran cross country in high school, but was the “last man” on the team. “Last man” is a euphemism for the slowest member of the herd, or voted most likely to get eaten by any chasing animal. Being on a team, getting a letter in a sport, those were important things in high school, unfortunately there isn’t quite an equivalent in adulthood.

I have a list of things I want to complete in my life. If you call it a “Bucket List”, you’re liable to get kicked in the teeth. Items range from “Visit the Pyramids” to “Plan big anniversaries” and “Have better relationships with my friends and family.” An item that has lingered on the list is “Run a marathon.” I have blogged about my progress (do a quick search for marathon or running), but I am not a good runner.

What does this mean? 

I am putting “Run a marathon” lower on my list of life goals. I’m not scratching it off, I might want to do it later in life. What I am doing is redefining what that goal means. By “run a marathon”, I really meant, pick a sport and do it to the furthest it can be done.

I have ridden a bicycle for a considerable portion of my life, and a good amount of the riding I have done has been long distance. In recent history I have biked across Wisconsin and I know my body was built .. or sufficiently beaten into submission, to ride bicycles long distance. My change in goal is to ride competitively in long distance events, centuries, double centuries, even something like the  Adirondack 540. My Uncle Tom was a competitor in Race Across AMerica and my Dad did rather well in the Audax Randonnée Series, so I am taking on the family mantel of riding long, far and as fast as possible.

I am running from a marathon, but I am running to a sport that I am better suited for.

YouTube - Sesame Street - How Crayons Are Made.

I remember this video from my youth (it was aired on Mr. Rogers, not Sesame Street). The music and the cinematography are all good. I did visit a Crayola crayon factory at some point in my early grade school years and the smell of all that wax was intoxicating.

It makes me want to run out and buy a fresh box of crayons for Hazel, just so I can smell them, hold them and let my creative juices flow like they did when I was young and unrestricted.

Nate Harrison.

A lengthy video regarding the history and integration in to popular music of the Amen Break. Not a piece of cinematographic excellence, but the audio is great for a background listen.

Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility. There is no question that a playfully light attitude is typical of creative individuals. But this playfulness doesn’t go very far without its antithesis, a quality of doggedness, endurance, perseverance. Psychology Today: The Creative Personality.

All the creative people I know fit most if not all these traits. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi hits the nail on the head with some fascinating research to back it up.