Celebrating your talents

I don't know about you, but I have grown up thinking that one should not be boastful. Tonight, for example, I nodded my head in agreement when, driving home, I read the licence plate of the car in front of me. It said: "B Humble." Was it speaking to me? That's something I believe in.

But others argue that being humble can also be a limiting thing. It may be better to reach higher. They argue that to deny ourselves the natural power within us is not a positive thing. We should instead celebrate it.

Marianne Williamson, author of A Return To Love, writes about this concept. In that book, she says:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talent, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated for our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Food for thought. I think it makes sense, as long as that light doesn't transform itself into arrogance.

Notes:

1. Photo of the lamp is courtesy of Wong Mei Teng, a photographer in Malaysia, who made her photo available at http://www.sxc.hu/.

2. Marianne Williamson's web site is here.

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A story about people who never stop trying

If you have ever tried to master a creative skill, whether it be woodworking or photography, writing or painting, usually you know fairly soon in the process if you're comfortable with it. Most of us find that it takes some time before we become proficient at a creative endeavour.

Now what about creative geniuses? Do they take a long time to develop their skills or are they born with them?

The popular image we have is that geniuses show their unique talents quite early in life. In the field of science, for example, Albert Einstein conducted his thought experiments and wrote his Theory of Relativity as a very young man. In music, we remember child prodigies like Mozart. In the visual arts, Picasso did some of his best work in his twenties.

But history also offers examples of artistic "geniuses" whose talents emerged much later in life after a long and sometimes painful gestation period. Two such people were Mark Twain and the French painter, Paul Cézanne.

In a delightful article in the New Yorker recently, Malcolm Gladwell (author of Blink and The Tipping Point), writes about these late bloomers and compares the mental make-up of people with precocious talents to those who struggle for a long time before they become successful.

It's a moving story about the special relationship between late bloomers and whose who encourage them to keep trying.

See "Late Bloomers -- Why do we equate genius with precocity?"

Notes:

1. More about Malcolm Gladwell in this profile, "The Gladwell Effect."

2. Gladwell's web site is here.

3. If you'd like to learn more about Paul Cézanne, see the WebMuseum Paris page.

4. The photo showing a close-up of brush strokes is courtesy of Asifth Akbar.

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