As a very young student, I don’t remember where, I read this quote. “Many people die with their music still in them.” I turned it over in my mind (most probably, while chewing the end of my pencil). It still didn’t make complete sense. If we did have music in us, and we knew it was there, why wouldn’t we use it? Some things stick with us as kids, and this one did. The idea of not using what we had inside us had a profound effect on my malleable mind.
How many of you know genuinely talented people who didn’t make much of their lives? Who died not being their best and not doing most of what they could have accomplished with ease?
At times, I wonder, how alive are we anyway if we are not compelled to wake up to our own special self? What do we see when we look into the mirror every morning...is there a trace of guilt, a furtive glance, a quick lowering of the eyes....maybe, to hide our transgression from our most honest critic?
I’ve spent a better part of my life asking questions, of myself and others and through books, to unravel why some of the most deserving people I know didn’t quite make it? And I am not talking about extrinsic symbols of success here. This is not just about money and a fancy car (well, that too). I am talking about their own admission in the twilight of their life - spoken with painful regret and an unmistakable urge to turn back the clock.
Why would we knowingly do this to ourselves? Or is our ignorance the problem here?
Years later, the penny dropped, when I saw much more than one person betray their talent to be a poor replica of what they were meant to be. Not by anyone else’s whimsical measures, but more regretfully, by their own.
I am beginning to believe with greater fervor that talent is not enough. It is not the most powerful element the presence of which is so potent that it carries us on its own will and charts a path to its full actualization. Alas, if only talent had enough strength. But it doesn’t. It still needs you and me; hopefully waiting for us to unite it with its siblings that are determination, passion, and perseverance. They together are the wind beneath talent’s wings. And put together they can help us sail to unknown, new lands that we never dreamed of. Even way beyond what talent had anticipated for that matter.
The reverse is also true. Without these missing pieces talent is strangely alone and unmoving; much like us when bereft of love and support for long periods.
So let me ask these passionate questions of you. What is your biggest, brightest talent? Have you used it yet in helpings big or small, to extract of yourself and your life what you deserve? Would you be happy when you have reached the end of the road and it is time to look back? Would you say with peace – I used all the music I had in me, and empty-handed is how I leave.
I think Erma Bombeck said it best - “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'.”
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