In Which Ryan Is Conceptually Successful
September 2023 | 4:9
Kitten Goomba and Koopa would like you to know that the first steps often look the biggest and the scariest, but can lead to treats and tummy skritches.
What's Been Happening
I've thought a lot this month about the nature of success. The impetus was the end of another DCI season, but honestly the questions apply to most things; what is success, and how do you set yourself up to be successful in the future? Can it really be defined purely by internal or external validation? Is it a single thing, a series of check boxes, or a general feeling that can't be quantified?
Per usual, the fact that the questions seem worthwhile is evidence that there's probably no single answer. You need to have a concept of what success is for yourself or a given situation before you can set yourself up to achieve it. If external validation leaves you unfulfilled or internal validation goes unrecognized, then you're probably using the wrong criteria or playing the wrong game. Pursuing a single goal or a to do list at the expense of everything else can be gratifying and make it easier to quantify and achieve, or lead you astray from what you didn't know mattered to you. Leaving your perception of achievement up to an undefined gut reaction risks constantly chasing something that might be unobtainable.
The obvious answer to all of that is that everyone has to find their own definitions and their own balance. The important part is asking yourself the questions, and realizing that no matter what happens most dogs will think you're awesome and most cats will be mildly disappointed in you but sit in your lap eventually anyways.
May your masks smell pleasant and your packages arrive without incident,
Ryan
Chart O' The Month
This is has technically been featured here before since it was on the Medium Ensemble performance at Epicure that was recorded and shared here as a playlist, but the chart itself is pretty fun and deserves it's own space. It was originally commissioned by Elkhart High School in Elkhart, Texas as a saxophone section feature, but with their permission I used it as a closer to feature the whole band since I finished it right before the aforementioned Medium gig. While it's essentially an F blues (because the world always needs another F blues), there's enough fun twists and turns to both keep things exciting and make me feel a little bad for making the band sight read this at the very end of the night.
The title does feel like how I have to articulate the melody line, but mainly was coined by my friend Rich when we were trying to get cooking utensils out of a drawer in his apartment. If anyone out there has not experienced a sea of spoons and spatulas fighting each other and the drawer such that you can't even open to drawer enough shift things around, I congratulate you on having a more appropriate and successful method of organizing your kitchen implements.
Look, Nature!
We're back to pictures my wife took, and this is a cephalanthera austiniae that she found in Calaveras Big Trees State Park in California. It's a neat and fairly rare orchid, and it was literally growing in the mulch in between extensive foot trails, roads, and parking lots by the entrance to the park. Make your own metaphor here about things being hidden in plain sight, or not seeing the orchid for the forest of giant sequoias.
Education Notes
Happy fall! Hopefully everyone is making it through the heat and I look forward to seeing people at shows and on videos before we know it.