Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Sandy

Before Hurricane Sandy hit, I was one of the many who mocked the storm. At some point I think I looked outside and said, "What are you waiting for," quoting Anna Faris' character in Scary Movie. I didn't think it would live up to the hype. But it definitely did, and unfortunately there has been casualties from this storm.

I'm curious to see what pieces of art will come out of this tragic experience. Music, paintings, design, architecture, etc. Art can't replace lives, but I'm always interested in seeing the things that people create when moments of desperation come into play.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Craft

So I'm thinking about dusting off my cleats, and joining a baseball league this fall. I've played in office softball leagues, but I haven't played hardball (baseball, for those of you that don't know) in about 3 years.

I started getting into baseball towards the end of middle school/beginning of high school. In my freshman and sophomore year, I sucked. My timing was off, I made poor throws, and my baseball IQ wasn't there. It wasn't until I started taking baseball seriously, that I started to get good; Junior year.

I'd take about 200 swings a day in my backyard, and beyond our normal Monday through Friday practices, I practiced on Saturdays, sometimes even Sundays with my coach's 55 and up team. I also listened to the commentating as I watched baseball on tv. Joe Morgan, Jon Miller, and Buster Olney were basically my after school teachers.

In my senior year, I hit my first homerun, and was later named Detroit All-City in baseball. I wasn't the best player in the world, but I was pretty good...and that was because I worked at it relentlessly.

Today I woke up thinking, what if people treated relationships like a craft. Worked at it night and day, evaluating yourself, and worked on different aspects of your "game" that might be lacking.

We work very hard for inanimate objects. We have to get better at working hard for people.