No big news, no burning issues, no nagging questions. Just two little bits from the last couple of days.
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My gig as rehearsal and show pianist for the Crescent City Lights Youth Theater chugs along. I'd forgotten how dramatic theater people can be... The experience of being in the company of drama queens (I am NOT talking about the kids but the adults who are "running the show") every night squelches any dramatic impulses that arise in me. I am the picture of calm.
I'm also riding my bike or walking the 2-1/2 miles to and from rehearsal as part of my eat-less/move-more weight loss project.
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Yesterday, in the span of 3 hours two different people offered unsolicited feedback on my speech, appearance and personality. Both commentators described me as articulate, calm, smart, talented and special (those are the words they used). The first speaker, a middle-aged woman, said she views the combination of traits as "intimidating." "You just seem so powerful. Has anyone ever told you you should lighten up? I'm scared to say anything to you..." The other speaker, a ninth-grade girl, sees me as "awesome". "You remind me of my favorite teacher at school," she said.
I've often been accused of being aloof, of seeming not to care what people think of me. I don't contest the accusation -- but I don't see it as a character flaw. It's more like a survival technique. It makes me crazy (in a life-threatening way) trying to figure out what to do with feedback like that described above. For my own sanity, it's better to just hear it and understand it as people talking to me about themselves.
"Ah, that explains a lot," I said to the middle-aged woman. "Wow....thanks," I said to the teenage girl.
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1) Activity is good - it beats inactivity by a "mile." Glad that you're walking and cycling. I'd recommend trips up the levee and out to the Lake.
ReplyDelete2) One of my favorite profs in Library School, and an Army vet, intimated a large % of the class. But he didn't want to hear (or read) fluff or filler, and didn't suffer fools. We needed more like him. So I think that if you're getting those kinds of comments, you're on the right track.