With all the equipment and experience and checks and balances at my disposal one might think nailing it is part of the routine. That would depend on the definition of nailing it. The it is a moving target. If you’re lucky you can stand over it stare it down and then take your heel and keep it right where you want it. And where you want it might not even be where it belongs. But at least you’re in the game. You have a say. And that heel is proof.
There are the days. The days when the word sideways is used. It’s a twenty dollar word that replaces phrases like I fucked up. Or this one is a tad less than It should be. Or one I use more often than I’ll admit to in interviews – I fucked the fuck up. When something goes sideways it’s part of the lesson I’m still learning. That question in the thought bubble near my left ear. The one that reads, “Why the absolute fuck did THAT just happen?”
Somewhere way after the 10,000 hour thing and a bit before the Takumi thing. The 60,000 hours thing. There’s a pop quiz. A refresher course. A reminder that mastery comes in stages. If at all. These moments descend from God only knows where. They come to the bench to remind me I’m not a machine. That despite hitting the ON switch each morning before the first file is touched. Despite it all. Something greater than all of us together controls the OFF switch.
All This By Hand
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