Re: Starting again

["T.W. Hartnett" <hartnett.t@apple.com>]

>> Sadly, there is such a thing as joyless passion.  And should you find 

>Give me an example.

An example is a actual marriage.  Four or five years into a marriage, 
people can look around and say, "where did all the joy go?"  For many 
people, this is a crisis which prompts them to reconsider their 
commitment to the marriage.  For some, the absence of joy signals the 
dissolution of that marriage.  Others are still committed to the union, 
even though the immediate "fun" is absent.  With time, work and 
attention, this joy can be rekindled, perhaps with greater intensity.  I 
know people who have been married twenty or thirty years, and they report 
that there were periods of two or three years where their partner really 
got on their nerves, or where they didn't speak to each other much more 
than necessary.  Life is long, and the demands of such a commitment are 
frequently underestimated at the beginning of the journey.


>When you say "contingency plan", what do you mean here?  Find another
>activity that is enjoyable?  Heck, I love watching American football...
>

With music, we can see a similiar phenomenon.  Many musicians report a 
plateau they reach in their development.  Forward progress seems to halt, 
everything sounds bad or indifferent.  Some people change instruments. 
Some stop playing for a while, or entirely.  Some retire from public 
performance or group participation.  Some buy new gear, try new 
techniques.  Some people stop listening to outside music for a year.  If 
one wishes to continue sailing during a year of overcast skies, one needs 
other means of navigation.  The above strategies allow for one to 
continue "sailing without the North Star (of Joy)".



>I hope you don't mind me asking these questions.
No, I don't mind at all, but it may be time to take this off the list and 
go to private mailings.

Travis Hartnett