Talents for the good of all ...
Saturday, August 22nd 2009 @ 1:58 PM 
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During the funeral service for mentor CherieRenae's father-in-law on Friday, I was struck by the way we all look at our own talents. We all seem to think our own talents are for and about us, yet really, are they?
The particular event that triggered this thought, was when CherieRenae's youngest, 21-yr-old Nick, sang the Lord's Prayer early in his beloved Grandfather's service. Nick is studying voice and composition at Millikin College in Decatur, Illinois. He has a wondrous voice ... the brightness and the resonance (resonance brings "size" and excitement to the voice) of a Classical Lyric tenor, and he is hoping for an operatic career.
It was a near flawless performance, with a powerful phrasing of notes near the end, waaayyy up there, and held long enough for the sheer beauty of that voice to soar so stunningly. It was an incredibly moving performance, and a fitting personal gift and offering to the memory of one who so loved to hear his grandson sing.
There was a teensy moment with a "blip" or "crack" in the middle of the performance, which happens with tenor singing. To get the most beautiful sound, one has to let the voice relax, so that it is ALWAYS on the edge of cracking. Occasionally, if you are performing perfectly, it will "blip" for a short moment; and that was all this was. A quarter-second at most.
Truth be told, during this particular performance in it's place in his grandfather's memorial service, it added to the performance. It just added that touch of the personal emotional experience that was so touching to all assembled ... it made the song more real, more ... alive. More connected with the grief and emotions that were pouring out of all of us. In some wonderfully human way, that quarter-second bound the whole spell of the music Nick created with the thoughts and feelings of our hearts in a way that couldn't have occured in a "perfect" performance.
Nick, of course, just finds that little quarter-of-a-second of the total performance an irritating flaw. He accepts that it's a professional hazard native to being a tenor in performance, but still, to him, it was a flaw.
Yet for the audience it was not a flaw, for it was came to us as an honest and touching reflection of the emotional nature of the moment. Isn't this interesting ... what to the artist was a flaw, to the audience was ... a hook ... a life-line ... that tied us deeply into the performance.
How often do we see the "flaws" in our own photographic images, and so miss the joy or the power or the beauty ... or even at times, the truth? ... that other's see in our works. How often do we criticise our images when others praise them? We interrupt a compliment to say "Oh, no, that little bit in the background was a mistake!" when we should just listen and hear what the image means to someone else. And perhaps, think about what they tell us.
Because no matter how much we love and yet are frustrated by our own works, I've come to understand that it is how they move others that ... counts. That matters.
Imperfection is a natural part of the universe ... and of each and every moment of our lives. And yet, that very imperfection often leads to the most truthful and beautiful "performance" we can give, or that we receive from others. It often is the most "touchable" path to connect with the world and the others around us.
And ... while we focus on our own imperfections, we miss the "truth" about ourselves and our works. Our talents and gifts really are meant for the good of all, and cannot possibly be a true gift to others without the imperfections that bind us all together.
Never fear your flaws, in yourself or your works. Imperfections are the glue that bind us together!
