Tea with McNair

• einstein's ticket + billy graham's suit

I have heard this story from several sources, thus I suspect it to be true.

 
Billy Graham is ninety-two (7 Nov. 1918.) Back in January 2000, leaders in Charlotte, North Carolina, invited their favorite son, Billy Graham, to a luncheon they were planning in his honor. 
    Initially, Billy hesitated to accept the invitation because he struggles with Parkinson's disease. The Charlotte leaders explained, "We don't expect a major address. Just come and let us honor you." So he agreed. 
     After an array of speakers spoke in praise of Dr. Graham, he stepped to the podium, scanned the crowd, and told this story:, "I'm reminded, today, of Albert Einstein, the great physicist who this month has been honored by Time magazine as the Man of the Century. Einstein was traveling one day from Princeton by train. As the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger and he came to Einstein. Einstein reached into his vest pocket, but could not find his ticket. So, he dug into his trouser pockets.  The ticket wasn't there. He looked in his briefcase—couldn't find it.  Then he looked in the seat beside him, and still he couldn't find his ticket. 
     "The conductor said, 'Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I'm sure you bought a ticket. Don't worry about it.'
     "Einstein nodded appreciatively. The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was about to move to the next car, he turned and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees searching under his seat for his ticket. 
     "The conductor rushed back and said, 'Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don't worry, I know who you are; there's no problem. You don't need a ticket. I'm sure you bought one.'  Einstein looked at him and said, 'Young man, I too, know who I am.  What I don't know is where I'm going.' ''  
    Having said that Billy Graham addressed the audience at the luncheon: "See the suit I'm wearing? It's brand new. My children, and grandchildren keep telling me I've gotten a little slovenly in my old age. I used to be a bit more fastidious about my appearance. So I went out and bought this new suit for this luncheon and one more occasion. You know what that occasion is? This is the suit in which I will be buried. But when you hear I'm dead, I don't want you to immediately remember the suit I'm wearing.  I want you to remember this: I not only know who I am. I also know where I'm going."

•     •     •     •     •     •     •     •      •     •     •  

A fascinating moment occurred one night at the very end of the classic TV show, Rowan & Martin's LAUGH-IN. Dan and Dick were talking to Billy Graham (yup, the evangelist) and Dan asked Billy what he said when speaking to to young people. With0ut hesitation, Billy quoted John 3:16. Then Arte Johnson appeared as Wolfgang (the German soldier) behind bush. Turning to the camera he said, "Very interesting...and very true. Think about it." Then he nodded to the camera, turned back to his profile and the usual "Schlatter-Friendly Productions" end credit appeared. Very interesting indeed.

[ Photo :: Billy Graham with Laugh-In regular, Judy Karne.]

• cat skinning variations :: cat 2

Another remarkable person steps into the spot light at yet another TED conference.

As visually enjoyable as the "Seed Cathedral" may be - I am not certain if it would be my favorite apporch to the challenge at hand. More pictures and info HERE...HERE...and a look at the other pavillions at World Expo 2010 Shangapore, HERE.

• if a tree falls in the subway . . .

[Read full story before watching video]

Do we notice and are we noticed? Can we create good work without recognition. Are we willing to do our best without applause or commendation?

Is it enough to know you have done your best and that it is excellent, even.... does it need a spotlight shined on it to give it value and worth?

I once painted a large mural of graphics covering an entire wall in a music story in a busy California mall. I work in full view of a daily parade of customers, many of whom commented on their favorite parts of the large piece. When completed it was seen and enjoyed by LOTS of folks, seven days a week.

Then they remodeled the store and covered it, floor-to-ceiling, with old weather boards that had once been a barn. The new "panneling" looked great. I loved it! The manager of the store appologized to me, but I said, "The mural had it's run. I know it's there."

More than a few customers asked about the change. Many expressed missing the mural.

"When a tree falls in the forest, and there's no one there to witness it, does it make a sound?"  So goes the old query. Of course it does make a sound—the same loud, crushing crash as it would if there was an auditorium of people to witness it.

There was such a crash, but it was in a very public place: Washington , DC, at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning (7:51 am.) A man with a violin played six Bach pieces for  45 minutes. Approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.  After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing.  He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.
 
About 4 minutes later: The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat, without stopping, and continued to walk.
   
 At 6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and walked off.
 
 At 10 minutes: A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent—without exception—forced their children to move on quickly.
 
 At 45 minutes:  The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while.  About 20 gave money, but continued walking. He collected a total of $32.
 
After 1 hour: He finished playing and silence filled the Metro station once again. No one noticed. No one applauded. There was no recognition at all at the end of his "concert.".
 
Almost no one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.  He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.  Just two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the average tickets were $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.
 
This is a true story.  (watch the video) Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment   about perception, taste and people's priorities.

This experiment raised several questions, The Washinton Post asked:
• In a common-place 0r public environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
• If so, do we stop to appreciate it?
• Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
  
 One possible conclusion The Washington Post article, following their "experimnet", reached from this experiment could be this:  If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made...

How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?

• the cat skinnig variations

What are you working on; struggling with; trying to figure out?  A great tool for creating is looking at "it" from a different angle. Changing perspective will f-f-f-frequently alter your perspective enough to reveal other solutions—other possibilities.

The old "more than one way to skin a cat" comes to mind. I have never de-furred a cat. Never had a reason to...never owned a cat. Mark Twain used a version in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court in 1889: “she was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a cat”, that is, more than one way to get what she wanted. There are certainly scores of other variations on this theme.

What's yours?

Ask yourself, "What have we never tried, before—ever?

Here's a little inspriation from of our most creative humans—ever.

Let me know what you do. Really. Other readrs are inspired by each others creative adventures, as reported in the commnets section, below. SO strap on your tap shoes and get hoofin' !!

• many hats day

Chauffer, teacher, coach, medic, firefighter, nurse, chef, cop, clown... they wear a lot of hats. Happy Mothers Day, Mom's. We couldn't do life without you! And we wouldn't want to. 

My mother was an artist (poet, pianist, playwright, theatrical director, decorator), teacher (speech therapist, drama teacher), wedding director, great cook, affectionate wife, doting mom. She died in 1992. She left a lot of hats behind and I wear many of them. I've added a few of my own. Thanks for all the hat you wore so well, ma!

• the enemy of creativity

"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt."

    ~ Sylvia Plath

[See post below for an antidote to self-doubt.]

• do vs. think

"Risk! Risk Anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth."

    ~ Katherine Mansfield, author 

Among the ever-widening circle of artists, authors, film makers, and theatre folk that I am in touch with on a recurring basis, risk is one of the characteristics practiced by those I most admire. I admire the work of all of them. I admire the life of those who are the biggest and most frequent risk takers.
    I am always curious (another characteristic of the "actively creative") about what's in the head and heart that compels them to venture off the trail most traveled by others in their filed. Children color outside the lines because, at first, we just want them to color. Then "we" show them the lines and explain "the rules of coloring." What a load of crap. (Sorry, but it is. And that's not the first word that came to mind.) [Drawing, right, McNair perfoming by Steve Bjorkman, life-long friends since sixth grade.]
    The most conservative studies suggest that by the time a person has graduated high school, their natural  propensity for wonder—desire to know—has diminished 60% or more. Curiosity is how we learn before we begin “formal education.” Wonderment, awe, curiosity—organic, informal education—are our best teachers. But they interrupt the elegant schematics of school, lesson plans, and textbooks with their overwrought content.
    Too often, these days, the interpreters of those texts—teachers—have long ago lost their own wonder. Many barely remember a time when they loved geography, mathematics, language arts...now, too often, they teach the system not the subject. Students memorize facts, shapes and prescribed stuff. (Again, not the word I’d like to use.)
    But human’s are born with factory-installed passions (plural, more than one each) that drive us to relentlessly pursue our spark. The inner drive that when stoked to become a roaring flame, can transform us into an  unstoppable force. Get out of the way. When this occurs the critics show up to...criticize. Their critique can range from nitpicking and pettifoggery (“Why that green?”), to quibbling, carping and outright derision.
    Remember, if you are truly pursuing your passions, your are engaged in a creative pursuit that no one can fully understand. As a playwright, director, and actor, I can come close to seeing what my most voracious theatre artist friends are up to. But it is their dream, their search for fuller expression of themselves. Mine is mine and yours is yours.
    Unless requested I will almost never criticize. The exception would be to call attention to behavior I find destructive—substance abuse, texting while driving, a toxic relationship. In those  cases I mostly speak as a friend. But when pursuing their passion I must encourage.
    I will frequently have lots of questions, but I always preface any inquiry with a, “I want to better understand what your up to.” Or, “I love this, can you tell more about what you are thinking?“ “What launched this project?”
    As often as not, the story behind their creative activity inspires me to be more active, draw more, write more (both in quantity and frequency) and take more risks.

One thing about risk taking: the best risks, the most productive risks are actions, not thoughts.

    If I am merely thinking about a risky proposition in my head I am just thinking. A child thinking about coloring outside the lines has a blank—un-colored in—coloring book. Get out the crayons. (There’s an open box of 64 in my downstairs bathroom next time you stop by. Help yourself.)
    Creativity is loud, messy, disorganized, confusing (to the spectator) and appears to be a time wasting bunch of nothin’. But it often takes all that play (rehearsing, sketching, doodling, vocalizing, and improvising) to produce a surprising result.
    One of the most “actively creative” persons I have ever known was my father. He couldn’t draw, play an instrument, or dance, and though he loved to sing he usually exhibited more exuberance than virtuosity. He was an educator, a school administrator (and an inspiring history teacher and athletic coach.) The church-related K through 8 school he helmed became a model that was admired and widely copied by his peers. In his day he earned the respect of state educational leaders, church leaders, and educators coast-to-coast.
    His close friend, and former principal of a sister school, said (at my father’s memorial service) “Elwood Wilson was the most creative educator, most creative man, I’ve ever known—he was a big risk taker.” I ask him about those comments. He told me that whether my dad was president of the association of Christian schools, on their board, or just back in San Gabriel at his school, “He was the one we always went to for advice and inspiration...And wasn’t afraid to say when his risk didn’t work.”

George Herman Ruth (“Babe”) was the home run king (714) for thirty nine years until Hank Aaron surpassed the Babe in 1974. Though he is most famous for his home run record, for decades he also held the record for strikeouts. He did hit 714 home runs, be he also struck out 1,330 times in his career (about which the Babe said, "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.") Babe Ruth’s strikeout record was beaten by Mark McGwire (most homers in season, 70 and latter 74.)
    UCLA’s legendary basket ball, John Wooden, may have put it best when he explained that winners make the most errors. For a remarkable compendium of “doers” who failed and later triumphed, visit Emory University’s great site: But They Did Not Give Up. 

A few favorite doers who did not give up, sulk, or sit around thinking about it:

• Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything."
• Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4 and did not read til he was 7.
• Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." Walt went bankrupt six times before he opened Disneyland in 1955. The initial proposal for the world’s first “themed amusement park” was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff.
• Charles Schultz had every cartoon he submitted to his high school yearbook rejected. And, by the way, Walt Disney wouldn't hire Schulz, remarking, “His style is to child-like.” Exactly.

• Broadway, film and TV star, radio-big band-recording legend, Ethel Waters, was spotted by the New York press in the choir of the Billy Graham Crusade, Madison Square Garden, in the late 1950’s. When they asked why a big celebrity such as her would be their, night-after-night, to support the evangelist, Miss Waters famously replied, “God don’t sponsor no flops!”

[ Watch Ethel Waters with co-stars Julie Harris  and Brandon De Wilde in the film version of their Broadway hit play The Member of the Wedding, by Carson McCullers. Ethel is famous for the song "His Eye Is On the Sparrow", which she sang in that movie with her co-stars. Watch this classic scene from a wonderful film in the YouTube clip, above. ]

    So...what do you do?

    Yup “DO!”

    Don’t think, ponder, wonder what it would be like if only....We all think—ALL THE TIME. Some of that thinkin’, dreamin’, imaginin’ needs to add up to do and try. And much of the do will be failure. At least it will fall short of your expectations for perfection.
      Look at what you did. Now...How can you improve upon your effort, fix it, re-write, try again? Some of my favorite art is the “studies” and sketches created that lead to the ”finished” piece. One of my favorite co-workers at Disney Imagineering was storyboard artist, Frank Tamura. During one four hour brainstorming session for the Mel Brooks Hollywood Horror Hotel Frank dashed of nearly one hundred 2”x3” thumb nail ideas for the attraction we were imagining with film legend Mel Brooks. Frank could “say” more in a tiny sketch than many writers could suggest in full page of verbiage. At subsequent “Hotel Mel” (project nickname) meetings I asked Frank to enlarge and post some of his UN-retouched sketches to inspire our further development. His inspiration was a key part of pushing the team of crazies I had assembled to conceive of what became the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. You can read about the early development of “ ToT ” on the unofficial website, TowerOfTerror.org. [Drawing, above: early concept art for Tower of Terror by Disney Imagineer, and one of my foavorite goof balls, Tim Kirk.]
    You need to know, too, that the initial response from Disney management (and the Otis Elevator Company) to strapping guests into a rusty elevator, in a haunted Hollywood hotel, and dropping them off the edge (thirteen stories) was not, “Yippee! Let’s do it.” But these days Disney is doing just that to several thousand guests everyday in FOUR locations world wide. (Paris, Florida, Anaheim, and Tokyo) Drop in any time.
    Now you do what only you can do, follow your passion. Ignore the critics who cannot possibly understand you. Fail. Fail big. Create! DO. 

Ever tried. Ever failed.
No matter. Try Again. Fail again.
Fail better.

~ Samuel Beckett, playwright,  

    Waiting for Godot  (see photo) -->

Here ends the lesson. Amen
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Post Script :: As I was writing this blog post, there were two energrtic folks at the table next me woking on a large photography site. Lee Roth has been a celebrity photographer and is also an accomplished (and creative) nature photographer. I thanked them for their energy that spurred me on as I wrote. His new associate, Delmy Gooch, is going to be an account exec. to assist Lee is getting his photos around everywhere. Have a look at his vast body of diverse and fascinating work, HERE. Click wherever on Lee's site, but do take a look at his "Stock Photos" area.

[Log into the comment section, below, and share a recent risk you took pursuing your passion.]