No Limits

The rivalry is with our self. I try to be better than is possible.

Luciano Pavarotti
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It has been popular for many years for young actors and actresses who come to New York and study acting with some teacher who is probably a bone head and can't act his way through a door, to say "I know what my limitations are." I tried to dissuade them from saying that.

I have never ever said that in my life. Why identify limitations? Why measure yourself up to the point of your capabilities and stop there? Why draw a line between what you can and cannot do and never step over it?

I never learned how to sing. I've done four musicals and two operas. I never took a dance class in my life. I played Zorba, a dancing role, and performed in two major modern dance programs. I never learned to play the piano. I accompanied dance classes for two years. I never took any formal training as an actor. I had a fifty year career on the stage. I never took a class in painting. Now I paint. I never got a college education. Now I write.

I'm not bragging. What I'm saying is it is possible for us to do things we can't possibly do. It is impossible to run a mile in less than four minutes. That's a medical fact. Man can't walk on the moon. That's a physical fact. A black man will never be President of the United States. That's a political fact.

I know what my limitations are. And every time they show up, I grab them by the tail, swing them around over my head and smack their nasty faces against the wall. There are things I can't do, because I haven't done them yet. In my senior years I'm not racing around tracks, walking on moons or running for political office. I don't have to do those things, and neither do you. But in my arbitrary retirement I'm always looking for the impossible things I haven't done yet.

Join me.

DB
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Summer is comin' 'fore you know it.

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

15 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
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Wisdom's Watching 10/06/09

Tomorrow hopes that we have learned something from yesterday.

John Wayne
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Let's go.
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Here I am on the cusp of my 8th decade and it seems to me that life is still about learning the rules. As I was working on one of my paintings yesterday I was wondering if I will ever learn how to paint. I was an actor for 50 years and one thing I learned during that time was that I didn't know as much about acting as I thought I did. That's not so surprising, I suppose. One can say that about any of life's ventures.

In my youth I gleefully and proudly acknowledged that I was an actor. Then, a few times, and an unfortunately few times, I worked with older actors who really knew their business. Those few times opened my eyes to what the potential was for really excellent work and set me to learning more. No longer content with what I was capable of I set out to gain more knowledge of my craft and my art.

Leigh, in her journal http://leigh-mythoughtshonestly.blogspot.com/, writes "Living a life of possibilities and new experiences. My life's journey has been, and still is a learning experience."

I applaud that. I think this is the truth of things. The journey is all about the journey. The question "When will I learn to live?" is matched by "What will I learn today?" What will I learn today about life? And when my today becomes yesterday what will it mean to tomorrow? What new experience will I have, what new horizon of possibilities will come into view for me? What experiences of yesterday can I leave in the ground as seeds for tomorrow's harvest? Not just what rocky roads might I find tomorrow and how will I deal with them, but what challenges did I successfully meet yesterday and what did I learn from them?

We are all capable of more than we do. That's true. But it is also true that we are all more capable than we think we are.

"Will I ever learn and, if so, when?" I like to think that Lawrence Olivier, Leonardo Da Vinci and Albert Einstein were asking themselves those question right to the end.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
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May you be swift to love.
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P. S. My leg has much improved.