| I know this first part is mostly irrelevant to the topic, but I'll get to something good, at least I think it's good.
the 1st part:
Bode Miller won 2 silver medals at the last olympics, is a 4-time world champion, and is the first American in 22 years to capture Alpine's overall world-cup title. So you can't say that he has nothing to show. He is though, without-a-dout not the model of smart preparation or traditional hard work. So perhaps if he applied himself better he'd perform better. Or would he? This leads to my question...
the good part:
Bode is a reckless, rebellious personality. There are numbers of musicians like this. How much of that personality and general cavalier attitude acounts for his success and the success of those similar to him? Would we know Hemingway if he had not found himself at the bottom of a bottle? Would we still talk about the Beatles if there had been no LSD (the song too)? Mozart might have even drunk himself to death. Was his greatness due to his lack of regard for himself and for nearly all else? Babe Ruth used to play drunk sometimes. You can't say he was running laps and lifting weights all day everyday.
Granted, there is no arguing that for mostly all of us, hard work and dedication and giving a damn is the key to all our wildest dreams; but could it be possible that like Bode Miller, some people need to party the night before the gold medal race? That for some people to achieve greatness, they need to simply not give a damn? Would those people do better if they trained as hard as they could, went to bed early, stayed sober? Would we know Mozart had he been selibate? Would we know Bruckner had he been a lecher? Are people only as great as they allow themselves to be? and are they seeking greatness as hard as they possibly can even though to the rest of us, they're dashing their chances of winning a race?
My appoligies for the philosophical ponderings of 4:54 am.
M. |