It Hit Me When I Wasn't Looking

More often than not those of us in the arts are searching for that serendipidous holy grail, or better yet that cloud with the elusive silver lining.
I think I started on that trail when I was about 7 years old, for it was during Christmas of that same year that I spied my Father playing a guitar, and to my utter amazement he was really good.
I remember asking him how come he didn't play in front of people, like he and my Mom were forever parading my sister Caroleigh and I around in front of seemingly endless regimes of their friends/ co-workers/ bosses and the like, and having us play our instruments, or sing. My Dad's response was that 1. it wasn't his calling like he felt that it was my sister's and mine, and 2. he wanted me to not ever be afraid of people,or of their scrutiny especially since I was Colored.
My Dad had also dreamed of playing music but like many others of our race the footlights were only for him to clean after other lighter or white people performed ( those were not his words, but they may as well have been).
I'm writing this today before our post Mountain Stage show tonight because most of this week seemed so bad to me, and I started foolishly feeling sorry for myself. I get real stupid sometimes with my self doubt and it clouds my belief system which is really strong.
Just because the week had flaws my talent didn't change. The band did the best they could on Wednesday, we just had a not-so good performance and that happens...ACCEPT IT and MOVE ON.
Anyway, here is todays strange correlation: my Dad and Michael Lipton are born on the same day, and I had exactly the same reaction the first time I ever heard Michael play the guitar before I became a member of this band...utter amazement!!!
What brought me to this revelation? Well, last night I watched for the umpteenth time the movie "A League of Their Own," and there is a scene in which Jim Dugan (played brilliantly by Tom Hanks) is explaining to Dotti Hinson (aka Geena Davis) who wanted to quit the baseball team, that "the hard is what makes it great," a line that I have heard with much similarity from both my Dad and from Michael.
What Tom's character was relating was that if you give up playing the game just because it's difficult then you'll really be missing out on what makes the game great...which goes double for the music business.
Anything that you really want takes patience and work.It takes preparation and opportunity. What I'm beginning to realize is that Mike makes us prepare by making us think...all the time. Most of the time I'm up for the challenge, but sometimes I let my defenses down and I always get blindsided
Sometimes I just need to be jump started with allegory to keep me in the right frame of mind.
The elusive silver lining that I seek is right in my path; it's on my left and my right, behind me and in front of me: it's Michael Lipton, Ted Harrison, Jupiter Little and whatever audience is standing , dancing or sitting grooving right in front of me.
For all of us striving in whatever walk of life but especially the arts, I sincerely hope that we find that shiny penny on the ground that we weren't looking for, but I also hope that we're sure that what we want is not what we've got.