Lend me a sheckel

I am very fortunate to have a great number of talented friends – some are excellent musicians, a few are wordsmiths of great ability, several just have minds that leave my brain choking, some lay their eggs in several baskets (and that’s me talking about metaphorical eggs of talent), but all of them have amazing capacity for love and friendship that leave me in awe of brilliant they are as whole people. Sometimes others don’t understand my view, often I don’t share my insight because you cannot force friendships.

One of life’s pleasures that I think we all overlook far too frequently, is the observance and awe of someone else’s skills. I find it amazing that I can know someone for ten years and still find out skills. As I did yesterday. My friend John flew me across from London Luton to Bucharest in Romania. Yes, that’s right, FLEW ME. Fully able to operate this inconceivable notion that 20,000 tonnes of metal and £30,000 of fuel, not to mention hundreds of passengers and bags, can be made airborne! Of course I knew he flew planes, but seeing it action is amazing – and makes me, as a friend, full of pride for this miracle of knowledge and learning. It was the same when I first discovered Rel’s mind and literary analysis, first saw Gavin’s music training skills, first read one of Ben’s poems and saw his drawing, first saw one of James’ shows. Isn’t it fantastic how life persists as a moving gallery of individuality – pictures at a moving exhibition.

Naturally, I told John how in awe I was at his abilities to fly a plane – to know what all those switches do. (A cockpit is the daily fix for a gadget lover.) At that point, John pointed out, that the same could be said when he first heard me performing music. It is true – that to me is just normal and not impressive at all – I don’t really believe I’m that unusual, but then for John, transferring this huge bird from one part of the world to another is merely normal.

I never forget the pride that occurs when I see a friend in action, propagating his or her talent, and it just heightens the love and bond I feel for them. It was the subject of muse this evening as I went for a walk around Bucharest in search of a beer and an explore of the nightlife. Crossing the roads around Pieta Unirii I spotted the complex logic of the road system. It struck me as faintly absurd how a nation that appears to have nearly as chaotic driving as Italy (oh yes – I know that’s bad!) is also able to navigate a complex road system efficiently. Yes, I’m aware that that is incorrect politically, but that is a rant entry one day. Certainly, we all assume chaos as being a disordered and maybe random thing. But chaos, I suppose is merely a concept that is attributed by the bystander – there is nothing to stop chaos being just a heightened logic – what appears chaotic may in fact be higher logic. Then there is the problem that the word ‘higher’ will need deciphering. Higher in this case is irrelevant I suppose. It is just another form of logic.

The same is true of talents – what may appear chaotic or higher is simply just another form. Just like the road system in Bucharest is designed for Romanian drivers (who are a bit like Italian drivers), and the road system in London is designed for British drivers (or their drivers!); a plane cockpit is designed for a pilot – not an organist.

It often makes me angry in life that the growing breed of ‘business administrators’ own (or rather try to own) the talents of these people. Yes, you are right, administering a business has a talent, but its skill is but common sense and the ability to theorize. Chief Executives of companies are paid to make creative and brilliant people work to their orders and consequently the whole force of humanity runs out of momentum and sensibility. Instead of being able to see and harness brilliance and the way it works, they push it so it runs dry – in order to make money.

Anyway, this started about talents and my brilliant friends who I love very much. Keep surprising me – you are all the heartbeat of life.

JL