Yesterday, while involved in the “sand-o-thon” alluded to in the subject line, I found myself reflecting on a quotation that has been a favorite of mine for some time and I saw it in a bit of a new light.... And I felt I had to share at least a glimmer of it here.
First, the story behind the quote:
Back in the Spring of 1990 I was working at a venue in Scottsdale AZ and was asked to work up some drawings and assist with the load in for a rehearsal of the group “The Highwaymen”....So I got to spend a fair portion of the day in question with the touring technical director for the group, a fine gent by the name of Jay Duro. After the set up was complete and while we were standing outside the rehearsal space (which shared an outside courtyard with a theatre which had a performance underway) and were sort of running “fan/curious onlooker interference” the subject of our conversation somehow turned to audio levels. To which Mr Duro replied “Well, like Johnny says: if it ain’t distortin’, it ain’t loud enough.” Which made me smile, both at the time and later as I have thought of it.
Then yesterday, while I was sanding a rack unit for some whiskey casks for our next show, I had a bit of insight about a deeper meaning to that statement. I thought “yeah.... Distortion is the result of pushing the limits of abilities....”. So, to re-interpret the concept: if you aren’t pushing yourself to the edges of your abilities, you aren’t working hard enough..... I used to say something similar to various trainees I had while at Walt Disney World: “If you don’t go home tired at the end of a shift, you haven’t been working hard enough.” You have not been radiating the power inside you and lighting up the space nearby the way you should/could..... Pretty tough-minded I guess and I may not always live up to it but still worth the attempt, IMNSHO. And giving it some reflection I wonder if some of that concept might have subconsciously come to me from the quote in question. At least in part....
It’s not about the whole “living on the edge or you are taking up too much space...” that you might have heard of. It’s about making the most of talents, skills, abilities.
It’s about living loud.
Kind of like another quote I heard, "You don't know if you have gone far enough unless you go too far and pull back". The context was in relation to photoshop techniques but I think, like this, it applies. Maybe we need to go to the point of failure and then pull back before we hit the precipice.
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