Lately I have had an opportunity to really interact with quite a number of very talented people. Individuals who have honed their skills to the levels of masters. Now I am one to bow at talent and give credit where credit is due.

However, I do not believe in natural talent. Let me say that again, I DO NOT believe in natural talent. I don’t think it, like beauty, is genetic. We are not born with it. Now, I can say that because I am amazingly talented.

Now psychologists have tried to debate me on this point and all have lost, but I remember my early years with vivid clarity. I even remember the room I was born into, with amazing detail. As it was a veterinarian hospital, thats right, with animals not war heros, in the middle of Idaho in the 70’s, I don’t have pictures and it was destroyed by a flood within three months of my birth.

Okay, back from my tangent, it ties in, I promise. I remember learning everything. Now when I say everything I mean everything. As I look back now, I can put labels on things, but as an infant they just were.

So began the learning and the subsequent discovery of “talents.” I remember learning to draw, my mother, whom I reference as Beth, would tell me how nice my pictures looked and have me describe what was going on. But then there came a time where Beth just kind of knew what the pictures were of. My father, Gwyl, was the same way. Usually, they both just kind of left me alone and let me learn life the way I wanted to learn it.

No one taught me how to improve my art. I learned it on my own from observing the world around me. Once I was ready I asked an instructor for some guidance and she showed me how to “see” the world around me. not just see it. That is when my mind exploded. I had done the work to be ready for my mind to capture that piece of knowledge. I did not quit because someone told me my scribbles were ugly. I kept on drawing. Some of the kids in elementary school said that my art was bad and that I was not good at drawing, but I did not let them tell me that my drawings were bad.

The point of this big block of text is that one controls ones own self. If a passer-by makes a statement, one can choose to own that statement or to say to ones self, they do not know me.

People’s perceived talents and skills are a culmination of their lives environment and their reaction to it. It does not matter how long it takes to “get” it, sometimes one just have to put in the work to finally become talented.

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Today in History - May 30th

In 1431, Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orléans, daughter of a farmer of Domrémy, was burned at the stake as a heretic.