Don't Discriminate, Appreciate

I'm starting to distinguish the difference between appreciating someone's ability and talents as opposed to admiring it. So that's what this post is gonna be all about. And before I carry on, I have to mention that the title of this post was taken from my friend David when he did his speech for history back in year 9. Not only was it funny, but it also rhymed. So there you go, my jokes are original, but I do reference my material when I quote, unlike all you other bloggering thieving bastards!!

Around the middle of last year, my taste in music dramatically changed when it started moving towards more acoustic songs. This lead to my admiration for guitar players. Especially, Sungha Jung. If you youtube him, you'll find out that he's a 12 year old guitar playing korean kid who happens to be a musical genius prodigee i.e. a friggin' alien with a bowl haircut! I had always admired this kid's skills, but it wasn't until I picked up a guitar of my own that I actually appreciated the way he was able to play the damn thing. Back at my internship, my guitar mentor Rod explained the intricacies of starting to play the instrument: "Playing the guitar ain't easy, man. If it was, every dumb cunt out there would be playing one."  Elegantly put.

I think the difference of admiration and appreciation could be said for anything that people do in life. When you know nothing about doing something i.e. playing the guitar, you're stuck in a situation where there are only 2 levels of effort that you can perceive: Knowing nothing, and playing the guitar. You're in the "know nothing" category, while anyone else who can play is bunched together on the other side of "playing the guitar". It's not until you cross that line from knowing nothing, to attempting to play that you realise that there are many, many more layers inside of that "playing the guitar" level. Suddenly you realise that's there's varying stages of effort and talent that's to be reached, and goddamn are they hard to reach. It's not until you try yourself that you can appreciate just how gifted some people are.

That's why I also appreciate the way some people draw. Can you believe how unbelievable that is? They're able to grab an image from their imagination and able to transcend that image from the unrestricted realms of their brain into reality and imprint it onto paper. That is just amazing. I'm still trying to make my drawings seem half as beautiful as what my imagination is intending. It's like my mind gives me an image of a gorgeous burning phoenix, but all I can draw is a retarded mangled duck

When you know nothing about doing something i.e. playing the guitar, you can't really appreciate what the pro's do in anyway. Sure, you know what they're doing is very talented, but there's no way to determine the amount of effort that's put into what they do. There's even a part in your brain that goes "I'm sure I could do that if I gave it a go." Hell, I'm like that with people who play Bass. I can appreciate people who can play the guitar really well, but that same level of understanding doesn't translate to Bass. I'm very sure it's difficult to play, but all I see is a guitar with only 4 strings. The same with cooking. I can cook eggs and toast, but that's about as far as I've gone with creating a culinary masterpiece. I watch masterchef, and there's the part of me that goes - "Doesn't look too hard...he's just throwing a bit of chicken on a grill..."

Of course, playing the Bass or cooking isn't easy, or else every dumb cunt out there would be doing it. But saying that, just because something isn't easy doesn't mean you should shy away from at least trying. Even if it doesn't work out for you, at least you can finally appreciate, instead of admiring from afar, the many people who do make it work, because there's nothing more gratifying for someone than being appreciated for the effort they put into what they do.