I last left the whole battle on the idea that I was going to focus on a few of the strongest interests and try to forget about everything else. That hasn't been working too well. The biggest problem with trying to implement this theory in my life is that when I look at life, I'm fascinated by all of it and the voice inside my head is saying, "Do all the things!!!!" Trying to stifle that only seems to cause more problems for myself.
In the past month or so, these are just some of the "projects" that have caught the attention of my ever-interested mind:
- - The most recent interest is in learning to play clarinet. Cathy gave me her old clarinet from her band days. I think I realize that I'm a Renaissance Soul when it comes to musical instruments more than in any other aspect of my life. Over the years I've learned at least the basics of the following instruments: piano, recorder, French horn, ukulele, electric bass, trumpet and now clarinet. Oddly, as much as I'd enjoy mastering any one of them (with piano being at the top of that list), it's actually as much or more fun to learn the rudiments of a wide variety of instruments for me personally.
- - I've really been thinking about architecture a lot lately. More than I usually do. I'm still pursuing the Art and Architecture of Denver project, but I've decided to try and take this particular interest in a different direction. I bought a used drafting board on the internet's favorite auction site. At the moment I've really been having ideas for Art Deco/Streamline Moderne running through my head. I plan to play a little bit with the drafting board and see if I can put some of the ideas bouncing around upstairs in a more concrete form on paper.
- - After taking a trip to the Denver Art Museum with a friend who is a painter, I find myself at least wanting to learn a little bit more about art and art history. I think I'd also like to try my hand at painting at some point. The trip to the DAM was amazing for me. I've gone through life thinking that I knew a fair amount about artistic elements like light and color. In a few hours, I realized that I know nothing, LOL. I know several pro photographers that advise all photographers to take a class in some other form of art. I understand why they recommend doing so now.
- - I've got a couple of multi-track barbershop projects going again. I heard a TTBB version of You'll Never Walk Alone that I absolutely knew I had to try recording with the other members of the Quartet of Chris (we kicked out one of the tenors...he was too much of a prima donna). I found the sheet music to it and am in the process of learning the parts. I have yet to do much with the video features of my Noink cameras yet, so I need to look into that before I start recording. I've also been playing with my "musical sandbox" (MuseScore) and finally completed a barbershop tag arrangement of Bittersweet Symphony. Now I just need to figure out if I was too ambitious with the tenor part. I have the tenor posting on a high F for something like 8 or 10 measures (I don't have my arrangement in front of me as I type). To date, I haven't been able to sing that note that long, but I'm working on it. And one of these days I have to record Lida Rose because, come on, every barbershop quartet on earth has to record Lida Rose!
- - I really need to start focusing on the Colorado Grain Elevator project again. I think I tailed off a little during the summer months because I don't like shooting elevators under high sun. Getting elevators way out on the eastern plains is a lot easier to do when one can shoot all day long from late fall to early spring. After doing the wedding book project for Mark and Katie, I decided that I'd like to self publish some of my own work, and the elevator project is at the top of that list.
- - While I haven't done so this week because of my sleep schedule getting messed up by a late summer surge of heat, I've been trying to run a lot again. I'm scheduled for a 10K on September 7th and have been rolling around the idea of doing another half marathon this year. And of course, there's the ultimate goal of completing the full marathon. This particular interest is one of the hardest to reconcile with the problems inherent to Renaissance Souls that I discuss below.
- - The list of books I want to read just keeps getting longer and longer and longer. This also proves problematic for my inner Ren Soul because my reading interest on any given day can change. But I don't like to have multiple books going at any one time because I get plots and ideas mixed up.
Believe it or not, that's just some of the interests at the moment. I think they're enough to illustrate the point, though. Beyond the interests that I'm actually pursuing, there are still more that I can't really figure out how to fit in. One of the things that I find about myself is that I truly have an interest in anything. I went out to Fourmile Historic Park for one of their living history days a few weeks ago, and I was as equally interested in blacksmithing as I was spinning yarn. I realize the latter may not seem like the most masculine of pursuits, but I'm still fascinated by the details of how it all works. There's a part of me that wanted to try my hand at blacksmithing and at spinning yarn by the time the day was done. It's just how I'm wired.
The biggest problem, of course, is that we're all creatures of limited resources. Every hobby requires an investment of time and money to get anywhere with it. I think this is the biggest problem I face when I confront my inner Ren Soul. How does one go through life when one wants to try just about everything one comes across? I think I need to re-read the book that I referenced at the beginning of this blog because it did have some ideas how to channel the Ren Soul randomness in a useful manner.
The biggest idea that I've personally had is that I try to direct all of my passions towards the photo hobby. Photography is obviously the one interest that continues throughout my life. It's also the one that I think I happen to be better than just "good" at, too (more on this below). If I can direct the interests towards photography, I can engage in new interests in a way that satisfies the inner Ren Soul while being productive at something I'm already pretty good at. The Art and Architecture of Denver project is a perfect example of this. While I'm sure I'd love to get in touch with my inner FLW, the fact is that I don't have the time to dedicate to designing truly spectacular Prairie Style homes. However, I can look at the Frank Milton House in northwest Denver and figure out how to best portray one of the area's best Prairie Style homes, photographically (that photo, btw, is not the best I can do of that subject...it's just the only one I had available at the moment!)
The other big problem I run into when confronting my inner Ren Soul is that I want to be Mozart at everything I try. Let me explain. Mozart was pretty much the anti-Renaissance Soul. Mozart was about music. All about music. He lived it, breathed it, mastered it. It was the one pillar of his life. Because of that, he could direct all of his passion and amazing talent at making the most of his interest as he could. And he was very, very good indeed. I'm not like that.
Because I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 647 interests, give or take a few, it's hard for me to dedicate a lot of time to any single one. Apparently, I'm not smart enough to realize this, though. Every time I sit down at the piano, I want to play Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody like Marc Andre Hamelin (go look for him on YouTube if you don't know who I'm talking about...well worth your time!). When I think about architecture, I want to understand it like Paul Goldberger or design buildings like Louis Sullivan. When I run, I set goals that are simply way beyond my capabilities and training level. Even with photography, which is the interest that I'm best at, I still don't achieve what I'd like to with a camera. I'm better at this and I'm improving all the time. Still, I'm not Galen Rowell or David Plowden.
It's taken awhile for me to understand that it's OK to fall short of lofty goals. Being a Ren Soul means that I can be at least kind of good a really, really wide variety of talents. That can be both fun and incredibly useful. I can strike up a conversation with just about anybody and be able to have a halfway intelligent discussion about something that interests him or her. While I may not pursue their interest(s) to the same level, I can at least understand the basics and where he or she is coming from. Like I said, useful.
Finally starting to understand this has allowed me to realize my life potential as a Ren Soul, too. Life makes more sense to me and is a lot more fun to experience when I'm not trying to shoehorn myself into a few interests. Allowing myself to try new things, even if it's just a little taste, gives me an inner satisfaction that simply wasn't present when I tried to stick to the three interest thing that I tried to impose on myself. The idea of giving photography the "Mozart" treatment (e.g. dedicating more time, effort and money towards it) but still allowing myself to try new and different hobbies at a lower level seems to be working well for me right now.
Oh yes, obviously you all realize that blogging happens to fall into the realm of Ren Soul pursuits for me. So when you see a half dozen entries in the next few weeks or so and then I disappear for few months again, I hope you'll understand. ;-)
