“Greatness alone is not enough, or the cow would outrun the hare.”
It’s not easy to find an inspirational quote about cows, as I found out this morning while doing research for my cow chair. My ‘I love you’ chair inspired me to decorate more of my furniture with magazine collages and quotes in honor of Art Every Day Month’s day 11. As I stumbled upon this fabulous quote online, I knew in my gut that it would be perfect for this chair!
The author is unknown, which is a shame because I would have enjoyed meeting the person who penned those words. What do those words mean to me? What comes to mind is that our greatness is our talent and what we choose to do with it. I believe that most of us are blessed with talent. Some of our gifts are obvious and some are more concealed and difficult to articulate clearly. But we are capable of doing some things better than other people.
My 18 year-old son was blessed with musical talent. He has the ability to teach himself almost any instrument, to play most songs by ear, and to compose music and lyrics with ease. What he does with that talent has been the topic of conversation for the last few weeks as he figures out the next step in his life. He is currently in Israel, taking a gap year abroad immersed in his Jewish studies. It’s just not working out so well for him, and he has decided to come home next month after Chanukah.
As his mom, I want to give him the guidance that will help him find his true path in life. I stumbled upon mine after taking many wrong paths. It’s easier to know what doesn’t work than to figure out what does. Here is what he knows about his future right now: his dream is to be a famous musician in a rock band. He doesn’t want to go to college and he doesn’t have a real clue as to how to achieve his goal. I have been arguing with his dad about the next step for our son. Dad believes that our son will find his way. The fewer constraints the better. Just don’t get in his way and he’ll find what’s real and true.
While I do see some truth to unconstrained path-seeking, I also think it could be a recipe for disaster. Without some guidance, he could sit in his room and watch You Tube videos all day, intermittently creating new songs and playing music. I have been encouraging him to flesh out his dream and work backwards towards achieving it. If you don’t know your vision, how can you move towards it? Of course he can’t know all the details of the dream, but he can certainly imagine what his ideal life would look and feel like.
My son has talent in many areas: art, music, film, comedy, acting, writing to name just a few. He has been described as a troubadour, a Renaissance man. And he has the potential to be a huge success. But not unless he does something with all that talent.
That is my interpretation of the quote: “Greatness alone is not enough, or the cow would outrun the hare.”
What’s yours?
