gurf.com - humor - Adversity

html> gurf.com - humor - Adversity

     Is the biggest challenge to an artist adversity from without— competition, indifference, misunderstanding— or adversity from within— creative block, sloth, self-doubt?
     Often they’re one in the same, for example distraction. While catalysts of distraction are usually external— videos, bourbon, John Willie— susceptibility to being distracted by these things is internal.
     But for a long-time friend who’s trying to make a niche for himself in the music world, external challenges— those outside himself— are the most apparent. For example he’s lost so many drummers that he should consider renaming his band Spinal Tap.
     Recently I suggested (since he’s always on a tight budget, options are limited) that he record one good song to distribute free over the Internet, for name recognition.
     He told me that while he would like to record, two microphones had disappeared. I agreed that he couldn’t record without microphones. He said he still had one microphone, and that got him thinking— the instruments also had their electronic pickups.
     That kind of creative imagination is what I call overcoming adversity.
     It inspired me to make a resolution to help me against my challenges. I promised myself then and there that I would never have more than three wives at one time.
     As a person who had just decided that consensual plural marriage was morally okay, and who was still invigorated by the rush of that epiphany— not to mention the indescribably-bucolic life it posited— unilaterally more-than-halving my ambitions, down from seven girls (one for each day of the week), surprised even myself.
     Later upon reflection I decided to modify that a little. If for some reason one of the girls wasn’t playful, I’d still allow myself up to four.

~ Gurf