Thinker

While road tripping back to Alaska, my friend pointed out the universal truth that there are many things that people may love, but they are not good at. If I remember correctly, he brought up loving photography, but not being good at taking pictures. I could identify with him there because I'm the same way way. I can look through Grace Adam's 365 for hours and simply soak in the message, but I could not take a picture like one of hers if someone handed me the best camera in the world. But I can imagine a picture that I would like to capture and that I would like to see. While watching the latest episode of my favorite show, "So You Think You Can Dance," it hit me: I can stretch all I want but I'm not going to be able to make my legs do the splits in the air like those women. What I can do is watch enough dance that it seeps into my nerves and my brain waves until every song and every occurrence in life becomes a dance in my mind. I love dance, but I am not good at it. But I can imagine. One of my great loves in life is communication, and I pride myself in being able to communicate a thought well on most occasions. Dance is a form of communication and though I can't dance, choreography has been running through my brain all day. I am a writer, and an imaginer, and a choreographer by nature.

It's been a running thought and theme in my life currently that there are thinkers and doers in this world, and I am a doer. When it comes to college, chemistry and math, the things that explain the world around us and that to understand them means the power to manipulate that world, do not align with my thought processes. I cannot understand them. I cannot work in a lab and follow along with the why's of what we do. But I can dig my hands into soil and sweat and ache with the strain of hard work and precision. That's what I've always been better at. When it comes to brains I'm a doer. When it comes to beauty, I am shocked and delighted to find that I am a thinker.

8/10/11