FF is quite the renaissance man. I've already learned so much from him just by listening. In Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point, he describes three basic categories of people. Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen (persuaders). I'd say FF and I both fit squarely into the Maven category. That means we're informations specialists. The difference between us is that FF has deep knowledge of lots of things - like sailing, music, food and wine, foreign languages and travel, to name a few. I, on the other hand, know a little bit about lots of things. I tend to fall in love with a discipline or hobby, and then abandon it when something new comes along. In fact, I can only name a few things I'm really passionate about. The stock market, baseball and art are the only things that come to mind.
My love of art leads me back to the title of this post. Tuesday I had a little time to kill so I yielded to the Siren Song of Michael's. I really just went in to buy supplies to make a wreath for my new front door. But I went down some of my favorite rows: Artist supplies - pencils, canvases, cold press water color paper; Scrapbooking - beautiful paper and all kinds of embellishments. I headed toward the wreath-making supplies and saw the mosses. I love moss. I want to grow a moss garden someday. In the meantime, I bought some lovely dried moss. Beautiful green sheet moss. Packages of mixed mosses and lichen.
An aside. Most mosses procreate with sex (maybe even for fun). Different sex organs for males and females, sperm (complete with not one, but two flagellae that help them swim into the girl moss's lady parts. Gestation periods of three to six months. Back to my shopping trip.
Near the moss, there were all sorts of natural looking fake fruits and vegetables. Pears are beautiful to me, so I bought a package of small ones. I've wanted to gild things for a long time, so I headed to the gold leafing supplies. They had silver and gold, but I was excited to see a package of variegated flakes, including gold, silver, copper and other colors. So last night, during a period of productive procrastination, I decided to gild some pears. So much fun. Easy. And quick.
So, my maven FF inspired me to buy a guitar this week. My friend Keith (also a maven) gave me my very first lesson (not counting my semester of guitar in 8th grade). I learned two chords. I learned what the fret and fret bars are. I learned the difference between nylon and steel strings. What tuners and kit bags are. I wanted to surprise FF when he finally comes to town in a few weeks, but I get too excited and I'm terrible at waiting when it comes to surprises. So I showed him on Skype. I doubt I'll be playing Stairway to Heaven when he comes. Or even Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (it's supposed to be easy). Maybe something, though.
Still, I love to learn new things. And I'm blessed to have so many friends who are happy to teach me. As for gilding the lily, that actually means adding unnecessary ornamentation. Trying to improve something that's already perfect. So I'll try not to get carried away with my newest hobby. I'll stay away from things that are organic and perfect just as they are. Because nature is inherently beautiful.
When I finally get my life in balance, I plan to fill it up with beautiful things. In the meantime, I'm going to be more aware of the beauty that surrounds me now. Most of all, the many lovely people I'm blessed to have in my life.
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