An adventure is an experience that creates psychological
arousal. This arousal could be negative
(FEAR) or positive (FLOW). Fear is only
a delusion; however, the lack of fear is also a delusion. Flow is the mental state of being in the
moment … in the zone.
My first time busking in Victoria was a tough gig because I didn’t
have FLOW – I had only FEAR. I had only fear because
I did not know what I was doing. I didn’t
have the right song lists (I carried three binders of songs); I didn’t have the
right equipment (I had everything, the binders, a shaker, a cowboy costume of green
leather boots and a white hat, ; I didn’t have the right locations (I never
then realized that you need crowds to
make coin). In a line, I was a novice.
And I’ve had other fears previous (to busking). When I defended my Master’s Thesis, to the
External Examiner, my academic committee members, and the guests from academia
who chose to attend, I had FEAR. And I survived to tell about it.
When I had to play the glockenspiel in front of five hundred
live audience members, including among them our Premier of the province, I had fear. I was strategically placed high in
the rafter seats, sitting among members of the audience, plunking as the keyboard echo for
the Christmas song, Do You Hear What I Hear, knowing that any error would be so
noticeable, not only to the live audience, but to the live television audience,
too. That was my one and only time ever
(playing) on the glockenspiel. I had FEAR. And I
survived to tell about it.
Adventurous activities are typically undertaken for the
purposes of recreation and excitement. I
want new and exciting experiences. I
must want adventure, but not the ilk of rolling over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
Here is my latest attempt at adventure. My son, Travers, lives in Amsterdam. Last November he spent the entire month in
Afghanistan conducting interviews with people in the city, people in the
country, members of the military, to determine whether or not the U.S.
Military interventions have improved the conditions for the citizens, a
deconstruction of the construction efforts so to speak.
Anyway … a Dutch journalist, whom he befriended, happened to
be writing a book about the Taliban. For
the book publication she decided not to have a photograph, she wanted a pencil
portrait of Hamid Karzai on the cover.
Travers enlisted me because … in braggadocio fashion, I have the uncanny
ability to draw people’s faces! Here is
my pencil sketch of a hatless President of Afghanistan.
Travers then wanted me to sketch a picture of him for his
academic website. Here is that pencil
portrait.
And then this past Saturday, I took my talent to the
market. I also packed my guitar just in
case (pun intended). I thought I would
thrum awhile, then work up the nerve, jettison the FEAR, get into a FLOW, and
sketch people for $10 a head.
It turned out I could not just jettison the FEAR. The FLOW I was accustomed to experiencing
whilst guitar busking, did not transcend in my mind’s eye, to my enterprise of portraiture. After three hours of guitar busking, I could
not shake the FEAR. Finally I decided to
stave it off, and draw Greg, the metal artist, my vendor neighbor at the
Farmer’s Market. See Greg and my very
first market pencil portrait below.
I would love to close
with Fear is only a delusion, but instead I’ll go with the Flow is being in the
moment. Derring – do next week if the
weather agrees, I’ll be at the Farmer’s Market, aplomb and in the moment, as a
dilettante pencil-pushing artist of portraiture (with a special thank-you to Greg and Valerie Asher of ASHER DESIGN LANDSCAPING).
To bastardize Robert Service …
There are strange things done under the mid-day sun,
By the
buskers who moil for gold …
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