by JanieM
The original trigger for this post was the fact that I’ve taken up photography in a serious way in old age. (I’m 72. That my mother lived to be 96 skews how I calibrate “old” – but that’s a topic for another time. Let’s just say life is uncertain, and ever more clearly so, as I get older.)
I had jotted down some notes for a post and taken a break to work on pictures when Lightroom crashed, requiring some careful reconstruction that’s going to take a good chunk out of my evening. Which may be just as well, because a post on “Hobbies, Practice, Mastery” was promising to become as long as Ulysses.
So I’ll scale back and just try to give us a starting point for conversation.
I’ve spent most of my life as a dilettante, doing what has come easily: algebra, computer programming, writing, playing music. But I always stopped trying when I got to a plateau where I would have had to work through difficulty or, heaven forfend, face possible failure to keep getting better.
And for the most part I’ve enjoyed activities where there are clear answers. You can solve an equation, and a computer program has to work (the inevitability of bugs notwithstanding). With music and writing I’ve remained a reasonably competent amateur, never working hard enough to test myself in contexts where I might be shown up as the dabbler that I am.
Now I’m deeply immersed in loving and trying to get better at “art” — a kind of activity with no clear answers. The path forward can be very murky to someone who likes solving equations and passing quizzes. To get better at taking pictures, I have to let go of a lot of my old habits (both photographic and psychological) and learn a bunch of new stuff that doesn’t necessarily come easily, even the parts that involve numbers!