Friday, July 12, 2013

"Multidimensional" vs."Unfocused"

I guess that, for years, in one form or another, I have been trying to figure out if it is a good thing or a bad thing that I wind up wanting to do all of the things that I see and admire. I've never been good at sitting back and admiring.

Does anyone else have this problem/blessing? Is it an ego thing?

The great one. 
The result of it is, I think, that I was never one of those people that we are supposed to admire in -- at least the -- "American" ideal.

I remember an old soccer coach telling us as a team about a former player's dedication -- how this player used to clear a circle in the snow in the yard in the off season (kids had those back then) and practice juggling the ball six hours a day, seven days a week. "That's dedication," the coach said.


Well, that's dedication, for sure. But is it admirable? Seems more like a mind being limited to one thing; and, in truth, one thing that is not terribly important. (If I weren't writing a blog post and if I didn't have to worry about audience, I would say, out loud, that I think this guy's dedication to soccer was actually pathetic. But I can't do that.)

The sports model, of course, is supposed to be an indicator of later success in life. Dedication like that leads to success on grand scales.

But I have always been more wide-eyed about the world. I have, at turns, wanted (and still want) to be a construction worker; an archaeologist; a marine biologist; a baseball player; an actor; a musician; an et cetera.

Can you find me in this picture?
"Mr. McBibble's Candy Shoppe"
by my sister Gina Matarazzo 
What I saw and admired, I always wanted to do. My instinct is to pat myself on the back for being multi-dimensional. The problem is, the society in which I live would rather criticize me for being unfocused.

It just seems, to me, that the world is too wide a place for us to commit our existence to one thing, unless that specialization is of tremendous importance. But I guess that's the key to this: what's important?

At any rate, I see a great novel and want to write one; I watch a documentary on Ancient Egypt and want to dig in the sand for relics; I watch Chase Utley make a tremendous play and I think of joining a men's baseball league...

Maybe the good thing is that I have stuck with writing -- which means that I, at least, have stuck with one thing that pulls it all together. If I were a guy like the one juggling soccer balls in the snow, though, this blog would be called Rabbit.

2 comments:

  1. Or "Snowshoe Hare"?

    Do you know W.D. Snodgrass's poem "April Inventory"?

    And one by one the solid scholars
    Get the degrees, the jobs, the dollars.

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    Replies
    1. I love it, George -- both your title and the poem. I need to read more of his stuff.

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