Current mood:	contemplative
Current music:	Eagles - Hotel California
Entry tags:	talent; chi poem

talent
Went for a nice long morning walk while listening to music again, as usual. While walking, the inspiration for a Chinese poem suddenly came to me. So it's now written, and posted at the end of this entry.

I wish I were more talented / gifted. It would be nice to know that you're truly gifted (even if it's in one area), and that you can do something that others can't but would like to do, instead of just being a jack-of-all-trades, but master-of-none. I suppose it makes you feel that you have a place in the world, that you're not just another face-in-the-crowd. At the end of the day, we all strive to be recognised, to be acknowledged. Don't we?

I don't seem to have any great talent in any area - I'm just quite good in many areas. I can only say that I've a fair bit of talent in drawing. And that I'm more effectively bilingual than many other people -- even that I'm not so sure of anymore; my Chinese is getting rusty from lack of use.

But I guess, like Blym says, what does it matter if you're not uber pro in something? I suppose there's only a problem with the ego. But other than that, if I enjoy what I'm doing, if I'm doing what I'm passionate in, it doesn't really matter if I'm not uber-talented, though a fair amount of competency (I mean not just basic competency, but above average skills) is required. Every time I listen to Blym play piano, I feel a longing deep inside to be absorbed by the arts -- to spend my time drawing, painting, dancing, singing, or playing some musical instrument - any form of artistic creation. And so long as I can draw / paint pretty well (so that I get a sense of fulfilment after I finish drawing /painting), I will already enjoy the process of artistic creation itself. That should be enough. Ah, but music! Music is to night as art is to day. I should like to learn a musical instrument (on top of liu qin and harmonica, both of which I play noobly) and aim to be quite good in it, though that's gonna be really hard. I'd like to learn the flute :) but well if not I'll just try to improve on harmonica / singing.

On another note, I think - in our society at least, analytical skills are overrated; we often equate intelligence with aptitude in Mathematics / Science. I'm not saying that 'analytical intelligence' is not worthy of respect - on the contrary, I respect people with great achievements / skills in Math / Science. It's just that I find that people in general seem not to think as highly of achievement in the arts - for example, writing (i don't mean technical writing, but writing as a form of creative expression), drawing & painting, or playing musical instruments eg piano really well). They'll go, "ooh, nice drawing / nice (e.g. piano-)playing" but I d Why does it matter? At the end of the day, I guess it doesn't really matter - it all boils down to personal opinions. (oh my, that sounds so relativistic).

anyway here's the poem:

这一条路

岁月的流沙
一滴一滴滑落，
流失。
两年已快告一段落；
青春的步途尽是酸甜苦辣：
淘气、执著、挣扎，
奔放、爽朗的笑声，
柔情、暖意、成熟，
失望、心痛、辛酸。

点点滴滴
即瞬即逝。
留下的只是回忆，
心中的一阵暖意
和脸上的一丝笑容、
一滴泪水。

烟雾已逐渐消失，
该走的路已不那么朦胧。
嫣然回首
好想在灿烂的晨雾中
再舞、再玩一会儿。
远处鸣声响起；
停留不住了。
只得轻轻叹气
告别玩伴
走完眼前这条路。

林沁潭
2007年10月13日