Unspoken
This week...
I was watching Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan (Jazz Dudes) on the YouTubes. There is this thick uncomfortable moment when they were asked to define their chemistry by the host. Neither one of them wants to talk about it and Bill explains why.
I was listening to The Inner Game of Tennis where the author Timothy Gallwey was describing how the more words he spoke about how to hit a backhand the more problems he was adding. That over attention to the details created tension. He even went so far as to say that positive feedback even produced tension. The player ended up wanting to recreate the exact stroke that brought about the positive feedback, resulting in frustration and more missed shots.
I was re-reading The Prophet Kahlil Gibran. “And The Priestess spoke again and said Speak to Us of Reason and Passion.
“Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord into oneness and melody.”
“...Reason and Passion are the sail and the rudder of your seafaring soul…”
“ reason, ruling alone is a force confining; and passion unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.”
“...let your heart say in silence “God rests in reason.””
“...let your heart say in awe “God moves in passion.””
I was thinking about how Gurjieff would say that as humans age they start to move with their thinking center and become juttered and creaky instead of natural and fluid.
——
Jazz, Tennis, Life they all have a setting of natural laws and boundaries that become the field of play. Within this field of play, we have unlimited options as to how and when to hit notes, hit a ball crosscourt, or make any decision really. If a tennis shot has more than a million neurons making more than a million movements happen, all in less than a second… how could we possibly attend to all that could go wrong? Impossible.
In this field of play we have the opportunity to directly link our desires (make music, hit winners) with our body and dance in the moment within the boundaries and laws of the field. The skill level will increase as this playful connection becomes hardwired with more playful practice.
Note to Self: Less Talking, More Playing
