Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

— Samuel Butler

REFLECTION

WHAT THIS MEANS

Nobody gets a rehearsal. You are performing parts you have never done before while people watch, the mistakes are audible, and there is no version where you arrive fully trained. Everyone around you who looks assured is doing exactly the same thing, usually with better posture.

That should lower the standard you hold yourself to and raise your tolerance for wrong notes. When something new goes badly, file it as tuition rather than as evidence. And extend the same allowance to whoever’s fumbling you happen to be watching.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

What are you doing publicly while still learning how?

MORE IN MEANING & PERSPECTIVE

Free, with nothing to buy inside it.