tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post8794616552355212085..comments2024-03-25T17:38:55.490-07:00Comments on Dar Kush: Thoughts on MasterySteven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-6202557577803539762013-09-30T13:16:16.041-07:002013-09-30T13:16:16.041-07:00Out of that entire post, the paragraph that resona...Out of that entire post, the paragraph that resonated with me is the exact one that resonated with Sarah, even though I feel differently about it. I want to know about their insecurities. I want to know about their sadness. It's peoples' darkness that is so interesting. <br /><br />And thank you Jerry611 for that quote -- I always have trouble with beginnings because I guess I'm afraid how much work the rest will be.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10569352962798998446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-72964363397982334992013-09-29T17:11:59.316-07:002013-09-29T17:11:59.316-07:00This post resonated with me. I know the feelings o...This post resonated with me. I know the feelings of being an impostor in a complex field very well. I'm minded of the faintly pejorative saying "jack of all trades, master of none" and reflect there doesn't seem to be a parallel proverb about deepening mastery. What has helped me for years is a passage from a novel by Doris Egan, <i>The Gate of Ivory</i>, which I read in 1989, and have returned to many times since. <br /><br>Theodora is stranded on an alien world, and is taking lessons with a healer for a few months while things straighten out.<br /><i> I put it out of my mind and went out to the hills to do my class with Vale. I was at a difficult time in my training; I was somehow supposed to synthesize all the modes of thought and all the physical techniques and anything else I'd picked up on the way into some glorious whole.<br /><br> "You shouldn't even have to stop to think about it," said Vale, grinning like a shark.<br /><br> "I can't stand much more of this," I said. "It gets more and more impossible. Each time I think I've made progress you spring something on me that I see at once will mean months of study. I can't win. There's too much to absorb, it takes <b>years</b>, Teacher, and you knew that when you let me start."<br /><br> "Well, well," he said.<br /><br> "I'm not even a novice! I'm not even qualified to be a novice! I'm still at the beginning of the beginning!"<br /><br> "Well, never mind that," he said. "I've been doing this for half a century, and I'm just at the beginning of the middle."<br /><br> "Is that supposed to cheer me up? If <b>you're</b> not an expert, what does that make me?"<br /><br>"That's not for me to answer," he said. He knelt down beside me. "You have to begin somewhere, tymon, or you'll never begin at all. I don't know what this obsession is with <b>expertness</b> you foreigners have. You're not a machine."<br /></i>Jerry611https://www.blogger.com/profile/13910736210057661122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-36618731819579603172013-09-28T05:44:14.360-07:002013-09-28T05:44:14.360-07:00"And grasped that so many of us seek a way ou..."And grasped that so many of us seek a way out of that darkness. We seek masters, the golden few who have achieved some standard of skill, or strength, or happiness. We don’t want to know about their insecurities. Don’t want to know about their sadness. We want to know how they got there, and that it is worth the journey."<br /><br />That would be it in a nutshell. <br /><br />It is a rainy Saturday morning here and I have been sitting with my eyes closed listening to the rain and thinking about what I am going to write in the story to include with the Christmas cards. It is going to be about beavers and frogs and rain and the harvest moon. I am ignoring the voice in my head that says "Nobody wants to hear what you have to say." That would be one of my demons. It is Christmas weekend here. I know Christmas is months away, but I live on a tight budget and I have to find ways of making things or coming up with special items to give to my family. I want them to know I care about them even though I have no money to spend. <br /><br />I hope your drive is safe and I look forward to hearing any interesting happenings along the way if you decide to write about them.Sarahnoreply@blogger.com