On Turning Water into Wine'I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.'
--Duke Ellington
Working With Words
A weblog devoted to spurring a conversation among those who use words to varying degrees in their daily work. Hosted by John Ettorre, a Cleveland-based writer and editor. Please email me at: john.ettorre@gmail.com. "There comes a time when you realize that everything is a dream, and only those things preserved in writing have any possibility of being real." --James Salter
Friday, February 02, 2007
About Me
- Name: John Ettorre
- Location: Cleveland, Ohio
I'm a Cleveland, Ohio-based writer, editor and writing coach, with more than 25 years of experience, including stints in Chicago and Washington, D.C. My work has appeared in more than 100 print and online publications, from the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor to local and regional publications. My work has been recognized by awards (including an Emmy) from four journalism groups.
Previous Posts
- Best Lead of the Month'Back when I was young and b...
- An Alternate Way of Expressing Nietzche's Line 'Th...
- The Case WikiWiki (a Hawaiian word meaning "quick"...
- Blogging for Tuition DollarsLast October, I told y...
- Tubbs Jones Needs SomeClass, While House CouldUse ...
- U.S. Automakers' Problems Didn't Begin Just Yester...
- Pull Yourself Together'People who want to grow lar...
- There are None So Blind...'Dwell on the past and y...
- It Always Comes Down to WomenPolitical humorist (a...
- The Power of a Graceful Retreat'The first decision...
6 Comments:
what are your favourite ellington tunes? i like solitude, caravan.
Thanks for the question, Mr/Ms Anon. But as my friends will tell you in great detail if you let them, I'm largely musically illiterate. I wouldn't know a Duke Ellington song from a Count Basie song from a Yanni concert. Okay, that last one is hyperbole, but you get my point.
Anyway, the real point is this: this quote deeply spoke to me, as the guy himself speaks to me, not so much out of my respect for him as a musician, per se, but as a creative person who labored his entire life on his craft. And with each passing week, month and year that I labor at my own craft, I see ever more similarities between those who toil at serious creative endeavors, whatever particular line they may be in.
Today, most anyone who gets up every morning and faces the day is engaged in a "serious" endeavour, in my meek opinion. Of course, I would also like to think that I am engaged in serious endeavours that surpass just facing the day, but I am not sure this accomplishement places me quite in the same realm Mr. Ellington inhabits. Also, given the combination of God-given talent and passion about music, a teeming, sublime output was all but inevetible. Not all of us are so blessed.
My use of the word serious was intended not to somehow segregate creative (serious) endeavors from non-creative (non-serious). On the contrary, I was talking about the serious pursuit of a creative discipline (someone working over many years, refining their craft, presumably with many lean years during the interim) as opposed to someone just dabbling with writing, music, art, whatever.
But in the second half of your comment, you get at a deeper and more important point, and one upon which we disagree. I belong to the camp that believes that success (in creative fields or anything else) isn't so much the result of talent but of dedication, of perspiration far more than inspiration. We all know dozens, maybe hundreds, of people who are talented but who nevertheless seem to fail at things. Talent only gets you so far. Sticking at something year after year, through disappointment and sometimes failure, is far more effective. Naturally, the combination of the two is most powerful of all.
There's a story, perhaps apocryphal, which wonderfully illustrates the point. Mozart was supposedly speaking to a group one day when a woman in the audience congratulated him on his native genius, a gift from God, of which she claimed to be envious. He gently reproached her by saying something like this: "madam, you too will receive gifts from God if you practice your instrument for 12 hours a day over 50 years, as I have."
I think Duke Ellington would have agreed with Mozart on that point. I know I do.
I have no idea if Ellington would agree, but I am not an expert on what he thought about these issues. However I do not doubt for a second that Amadeus packed 50 years of practice into the 35 that he lived. I believe that I said "talent and passion," which obviously implies that one works at one's talent, and works relentlessly. Do we all know hundreds of talented people? I do not. But maybe we interpret the word differently. Perhaps you really are implying that creative (serious) endeavours require more effort and are somehow more noble than non-creative (non-serious) endeavours. I'm sure you'll have the last word; this was mine...
Nope, I think I'd like to leave you with that last word. You left me with plenty of food for thought, for which I thank you, careful reader.
Post a Comment
<< Home