How many times, and in how many ways have you heard it?

“Practice Makes Perfect?”

I have dabbled at playing the guitar for decades. I gave it up for about 20 years because I stopped being able to hear the music that I wanted to play. A few years ago I started taking lessons from a man who I consider to be a really talented musician. This guy can play anything and make it sound like aural honey. I asked him one day when I would be able to really play again. Know what he told me?

Keep practicing.

That was it. No great secret. Pick up your guitar and start hitting the strings. Some days it is good. Some days it isn’t.

Regardless. Every few days I pick up my guitar and start hitting the strings. It makes me feel good. And I am starting to hear that music again.

It is the same thing with writing. Many years ago I was writing on a daily basis. Nothing of any import, nothing really that good. I was writing ad copy. Pretty straight forward, crappy stuff. But I was knocking out a few hundred words a day. Making some cash, and turning into a vomiter or words. Strange thing was, that I felt good about it. Think it was the making money part that I liked the most. Cash can cure most ills.

Mercenary bastard, I am.

Look at that. 250 words completed and without the struggle that the first two days brought.

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” Aristotle.

“If you want to find the real competition, just look in the mirror. After awhile you’ll see your rivals scrambling for second place.” Criss Jami

Let’s take a 180 degree turn here.

I watched a movie this week that was very hard for me to watch. That movie was “Saving Mr. Banks.” It is the store of the making of the movie “Mary Poppins.” In the movie Tom Hanks, playing the part of Walt Disney, tells Emma Thompson, who played P.L. Travers that he understands that Mary Poppins didn’t come to the Banks home to take care of the children. Instead, she came to save Mr. Banks.

That struck a chord in me. We seem to love the idea of redemption. The never ending struggle between Good and Evil. The flawed man or woman, who is desperately trying to do good though they might be put into positions of doing evil throughout their lives.

We see it in books, and film constantly. I don’t fully understand if it is because of our religion, or because we so desperately want to validate that our lives, or time here on this rock, have meaning above and beyond the every day. We are all born innocent….though the Bible says we are all born with Original Sin….but my point is that we only learn all the negative aspects of life by viewing, and modeling those around us. We do what we see our parents, family and friends doing.

Imagine that.