Saturday, January 9, 2010

"Richard's big chopper" and my life's adventure

While browsing the good ol' social networking sites yesterday I was pointed to a link on the Top Gear website. Apparently, Richard Hammond [a/k/a/ Hamster] has been learning how to fly a helicopter. Here's the link to the column:

Richard's big chopper

And here's my favorite paragraph from the column:

[Flying a helicopter is] by far the most complicated thing I've ever tried to get the hang of - I'm still pretty useless at it - it's deeply, deeply frustrating, gives me a hideous headache and I am hopelessly addicted to it.



A lovely autographed photo of Richard Hammond, from http://www.music4.com.

After reading the column, I thought about it for a bit and then wrote a note to myself on my work computer:

flying a chopper is like speaking a new language is like taking up a craft: it doesn't work if you're not all there and paying all the attention in the world - but when you get good at it, well, you actually CAN let your attention wander (just a teeny bit....) :D


Picture taken from http://www.knittersaddiction.com/_blog/The_Crochet_Chain.

Yes, the time it takes for me to get started, keep going, and soldier on to the end in writing and crochet both can sometimes leave me very frustrated. I've been writing for a long time and it completely ticks me off when I get writer's block; in parallel fashion, I get angry when my newbie hands refuse to make one more double crochet because they're cramping like fury, or hold the hook wrong and thus force me to work very hard on getting a single chain stitch done.

Still, I share Hamster's sentiments: I am addicted. These are the things I will still like doing even on the days when I'm so angry with what I'm doing that I'd rather bang my head against a brick wall rather than make another stitch or write another paragraph.

It IS an adventure. I'm still having fun. And I'll keep going.

No comments: