I love having time to explore some random topic and having a good discussion when we aren't bothered by stupid phones and useless chatter. Wednesday night I got out early from work so I offered Baby A dinner and when he doesn't say Bill Miller, he says Whataburger, sorry, not sorry, but we are all Texas, all the time. While we were waiting in line, there is always a line at Whataburger, it is that good, he asked me the question "if you could have a conversation with anyone that ever existed and language wasn't a barrier, who would it be?" I am not sure I am the best person to ask this question to I said because I feel leery about the people we should say.
The obvious answer would be to mention someone great, Albert Einstein, wife said Marie Curie later, but I know these type of people suck in the real world. I always think back to my high school days, stay with me. When I was in band, we competed yearly individually, and I was soundly beaten my sophomore year by this guy who I was then put in the same room to sleep with my senior year, when I did finally make it to the all-state symphonic band. He was there for the all-state Jazz band, which I didn't even know was a thing up to that point. Anyways, I was kind of dumbfounded when after trying to banter with him and his friend from the same school trying to get them to go out to eat, so I wouldn't go alone, they chose to stay in the room. They were more interested in making humming noises to each other while they were training themselves to recognize notes by pitch. They would make a "aaaaa" sound and the other would say "that's a C." I just left the room thinking that was weird as hell, to me.
After a lot of years I have figured that is what true greatness is, total dedication to your craft. I loved playing the sax, but I wasn't as committed as those dudes and to me that is how the great people in the world are. This reminds me of a scene in Queen's Gambit (great little series on Netflix) about a gifted girl who plays chess (it is fictional, girls don't generally like chess). In one scene after she has become pretty great, one of her competitors comes up and thanks her. He was one of the best in Kansas or whatever state she grew up in and he tells her he has quit because "I thought I loved chess, that I was passionate about it, but the way you play and study it makes me feel like I don't know what I am doing." Although this was a fictional movie, I think that summarizes the good from the great right there.
to be continued...
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