Mr. Elmore,
Thank you very much for you input in this thread. Since now you are here, I want to apologize to you because your wife Kelly are hurt by my post, though that has never been my intention. I did want to make a point that was unrelated to Kelly but I did it in such a way that was thoughtless and inconsiderate toward her. For that I apologize.
I do, however, disagree fundamentally with the points made in her article, and I will try to explain.
Before I can go on, I want to make a couple of disclaimers. First I have NOT read all the posts in this thread, except the article itself and some of posts that followed mine. So, if I miss something, it is not intentional. Second, the word "talent" I use here has the same definition as in the original article, i.e. "raw talent" or "natural endowment or capacity".
Perhaps I shall start from paraphrasing my own statement that has led to this article, that I consider that an artist, or simply any man, in pursuing values in life, must be true to his talent and passion. I stand by this statement more firmly after having given it more thoughts.
A person’s talent and passion are often aligned (using Kelly's word). It is not by accident, but by reason.
Thus man must be true to his talent as it is now aligned with his passion. It is not by moral obligation, but by reason.
However, if surrendering one’s reason is considered immoral, then, yes, men are bound morally to be true to their talent.
I’ll now attempt to make a Randian-like deduction.
We are men on earth. By our nature we desire a flourished life. Man possesses a mind that is capable of reason, and the reason “is man's only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival”. Each of us is endowed with various innate talents to vastly different degrees. By our reasoning we would conclude that if we are to make maximum use of our innate talents, we would achieve maximum values in life most efficiently, circumstance allows, of course.
Thus if a person forfeits his natural talent, i.e. not pursing values by doing things that he is good at, but instead insists on doing something that he is not so good at, it verges on irrationality and stupidity.
Then what about that a person just “don’t like that stuff that much” or even "hate it"? This sort of statements struck me as mystical emotional whims that are devoid of reason. Emotion is not a cause. It is an effect and we need to understand the root of its cause. My 8 year old son has already learnt that he will never use “I don’t like it” as an excuse or reason for not doing something. He must give me a real reason or reasons, otherwise he will do what I say.
Ok, I will use my son as an example to illustrate my points. Two years ago, my son started ice skating and piano lessons at about the same time. His ice skating soon progressed to a level that once a week lesson and practice were no longer sufficient for the development of the new skills that he learnt in each lesson. Although he felt exhilarating on ice and told me “I feel like I could skate forever”, it was impossible for me to take him to the ice rink everyday. So he gradually started to lag behind other kids in the same group and eventually lost interest. He then asked me to let him quit skating. After a few more months of struggle, I granted it. In this incident, my son had a legitimate reason for not being able to like skating and that reason actually lay with me that I could not provide him the necessary support for him to continue.
His piano lesson is entirely another matter. Like all kids, he doesn’t like practice. Once he was so reluctant to practice, I said to him “Well, if you don’t want to do what your teacher asks you to do, maybe we should quit the piano lesson. What’s the point?” I then saw tears starting to well up in his eyes, and he went back to the practice. He clearly loves music, has a strong bond with his teacher, and enjoys playing piano tremendously. I want him to understand from an early age that whatever he will pursue in life later on, hard-working is a default. And it should be an established habit early on. There is just no easy way around it no matter how talented or passionate a person may be, let along us lesser mortals.
Well, that’s for my 8 year old boy. For people in their 20s or even 30s, if they still use “I just don’t like that stuff very much” or "I hate it" as an excuse without real reason for not following their talents, giving all opportunities, well, I have a few things to say but I will not say them here.
Dissenting respectfully,
Hong
(Edited by Hong Zhang on 4/24, 12:27am)
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