Guest post: Making the effort

Photo from Gorilla vs Bear

Last night I saw Radiohead. They are my favourite band. I've seen them three times previously over the years, one in particular with a rather fantasy-like back story.

Every show ends up being a special one, and last night's was no exception. It was my birthday you see, and I was struck during Karma Police by how important Radiohead has been to me for over a decade - my entire twenties. Without going on and on, I had a chance to step out of things for a minute and take a bit of stock about the passage of time, and the inspiring products of doing your best not just for a week or two, but OVER TIME.

Watching people who are great at what they do is one of my favourite things. I get full of sorts of feelings, like how impressive the mountain of effort is that yielded that ability or song or object or idea or whatever. 'How many hours did that take to learn, Jonny Greenwood?', I think to myself. ('Awesome!', I also think.) Also, I'm so proud of them/happy for them for their accomplishments! A very 'Check out the fruits of your labours!/Thank you for the fruits of your labours' kind of thing. The fruits of passion! Passionfruits!

No one is exempt from this - everyone from the amazing kids on PBS on Saturday morning to Radiohead to Elephant Island to all of us, as you know, we all have our passionfruits.

Let us take heart then, and inspiration from our favourites, whoever they are. One of the best parts of making things for me is making the effort, and not necessarily the result. Which would explain why I have so many unfinished baby sweaters littering the house.