[at-l] quitting, regrets and Self Doubt

[saunterer@jimbullard.org (saunterer@jimbullard.org)]

At 07:07 PM 4/11/02 -0700, Sloetoe wrote:
>Sounds to me like the commitment you made to the task of the
>throughhike haunts you still. But commitment to hike and a
>throughhiker's "freedom" as you and JimO wrote of it are not
>mutually exclusive. One's a doorway, the other's a field. You
>once made the commitment to hike, and you're not "free" of it,
>true, but they're completely different spheres: if you're in a
>committed relationship, does that mean you've "lost your
>freedom" like so many bachelor/ette parties claim? I may be a
>gooey romantic, but you're talking wholey different
>universes.....

Okay, I'm getting philosophical here.  Feel free to change channels.
When I was in art school the emphasis was on "creativity" and 
"originality".  They didn't want to teach skill or technique because it 
might stifle the student's originality.  "They wouldn't feel free to 
experiment, to create original work".  Bull hockey!  My training as a 
photographer (and my teaching method) is all skill based.  Why?  I learned 
a looong time ago that whatever choices you make in life come with 
limits.  Success comes from learning to live and work within those limits 
until they become second nature to you.  As a photographer or artist, that 
means knowing your equipment and process intimately, what it will do, how 
far you can push it, what's a waste of time because it exceeds the limits 
and only leads to frustration.  When that level of expertise is reached, 
you experience true freedom to create.  It's the same in life.  Make your 
choices, accept the limits those choices impose and find your freedom 
within them.  Constantly being distracted by the options of the choices you 
didn't make or the paths you didn't take, gets you nowhere.  You aren't 
free.  You are a slave to novelty and indecision.

Thus sayeth the sAunTering one