I Don’t Go Far Enough

That’s the story of my life.

Whether it’s my art or life in general, I don’t go far enough.

I’ll try my hand at a new medium and then give up because I’m not as good as I think I should be right off the bat.

You’d think I’d recognize the pattern by now.

Be self aware enough to know my shortcomings. 

But NOOOOOOOOOO.

I keep repeating them ‘ad nauseam’.

Until I remember a lesson my father taught me.

I was driving in my little blue Pinto. Looking for something/someone in a town I knew but didn’t frequent. There was massive road construction. EVERYTHING was torn up. I didn’t recognize a thing. I drove one way for MILES not finding what I was looking for. Nothing I saw was familiar. I turned around and drove MILES in the other direction. Still NOTHING!

I began to panic.

You need to know here, I’m not the panicky type. And I have a VERY GOOD sense of direction. I can count on one hand the times in my life I’ve gotten lost. But there I was, lost!

I didn’t know what to do!

I finally found a phone booth among the piles of dirt and pipes and called home.

My father answered the phone and I wailed, “I’m lost!”

To his credit and my salvation he was very calm and replied, “First of all, take a deep breath!”

Then he said, “We live on an island, you can’t go very wrong in any direction.”

Leave it to my father to go for the laugh!

He said, “You just haven’t gone far enough either way to get to a place you recognize. Get back in the car, pick a direction and drive until you see something familiar.”

Of course he was right.

As soon as I drove past the construction everything was familiar again and I made it home in time for dinner.

But I learned a big lesson.

Simple but true. 

And I hear him as I crumple up the umpteenth drawing that I think I’ve ruined….’You just haven’t gone far enough….”