I Don't Wanna Be Your Kingpin

After reading the email exchange between Malcolm Gladwell and Bill Simmons that I linked to yesterday, one of the points that they both commented strongly on has stuck with me. Gladwell remarked that he was very surprised to hear a golf commentator recently state during a tournament that "this was the first time that Phil Mickelson has picked up a club in 5 weeks."

Now, there are two ways of looking at such a comment. The first way is to be amazed that some people are so gifted as to be able to not do something for 5 weeks, then to pick it up and resume playing at a world-class level. In their varied professions, people like Jimmy Page, Ernest Hemingway, or Michael Jordan probably possessed the ability to step away from what usually consumed their time and then to come back to it with minimal loss of skill. It causes those of us who do not possess that given skill or ability to marvel.

The second way of looking at is what was stressed by Gladwell, that it is amazing that someone who is at the top of their profession can keep from doing something that they are so gifted at for five weeks. That seems to be the definitive separation of those who are doing something because they are good at it and those who are doing something because they love it. Just from watching Phish play, I know that if Trey Anastasio had to go 5 weeks without playing his guitar or writing music, he would probably go crazy, and that is no small part of why the music of Phish appeals to so many people. Passion is a contagious disease.

I think that I am becoming that way with writing. I look forward each day to sitting down to compose my thoughts and the days where my mind seems muddled and gray often are the most difficult to deal with. I long for the days when the thoughts flow from my mind to whatever medium is available to receive them.

The world is shaped by people who spend their lives doing the things that make them get up in the morning. People are not motivated by those who have the capacity to lay down their greatest gifts for 5 weeks at a time. The world is changed by those who recognize their gifts from God and use them each and every day because anything less would feel like wasting time.