101% American
  • Home
  • Reality Check
  • Stuarts-Blog

TALENT: BASHO TO BARISHNIKOV

4/26/2012

 
Picture
GRANDPA'S LAMP
Talent: Basho to Barishnikov
    Long ago and far away a guy in funny clothes wrote in a language I’ll never speak.
        An ancient pond
        Frog jumps in
        Water sound.     
    Three centuries later, Matsuo Basho’s vision blooms in my mind.     
    In Biblical days a talent was a weight of gold, and the parable of the talents [Matthew 25], teaches that anything precious must be invested. Now talent includes intelligence, creativity, strength, beauty, talent for words, dance, music, art, healing. It gave us Mikhail Baryshnikov,  Mohammad Ali, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King, great artisans, gardeners, and makers of ships. My paternal grandfather was an artisan in wrought-iron. One of his lamps is still in my family. [see photo].
    Amadeus, the movie about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is also about the jealousy of Antonio Salieri, resentful of the talent God gave Mozart. It exaggerates Salieri’s jealousy yet is believable. A real-life parallel is the jealousy of ice skater Tonya Harding, who connived to cripple Nancy Kerrigan, her rival. Kerrigan was injured but returned to world class skating. Harding, despite world class talent, sank into degraded notoriety. She lacked “moral” talent, and also the talent to enjoy any talent not her own.  
    Most of my creative energy went into making dances. Some have merit but are not in a class with the masterpieces of Paul Taylor, Alvin Ailey, Jack Cole, or Bob Fosse. It takes a rare talent to make Aureole or Revelations or Sing Sing Sing or The Rich Kid’s Rag, yet the talent to enjoy them is plentiful.
    Vincent Van Gogh’s unhappy life epitomizes the pressures society can place upon talent, although if talent is recognized and allowed to flower, talent and happiness can exist in the same person, Talent loves freedom.
China recognizes the power of talent, and rewards those who possess it, yet a continual outflow of talented writers and artists into free societies reveals China as an inhospitable place for talent.  The U.S. gives talent plenty of scope, yet has people who fear others who are “too smart.” Newt Gingrich, constantly attacking “elites,” panders shamelessly to those fears. And talent born into a poverty-stricken village in Africa, a Dalit [untouchable] child in India, a nomadic tribe in Siberia, is lost. The world desperately needs the bounty its talented people can supply but will get it only when talent is warmly welcomed and lovingly nurtured wherever it appears..
                                     For a feast of Basho Haiku,click this link BASHO

Martha
4/26/2012 01:20:58 pm

Nice piece! (Let's hear it for some talented women: Martha Graham?


Comments are closed.
    Picture

    Author (Yuma, AZ, 1944)

    Being 90 years in this world,  with great kids,  great grandkids, great wives (two, one at a time) and great memories, I wonder why some people seem to have stopped loving the U.S.A.? I will wonder in print right here. If you wonder too, or can provide some answers, please comment.
                                   Stuart Hodes

    Picture
           With my friend, Nero.
                   April, 2012.
        Photo by Ray Madrigal

    Archives

    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly