Jessica’s Reviews > Killing Commendatore > Status Update

Time steals some things, but it gives us back others. Making time our ally is an important part of our work.

I think there are a lot of people," she said, "who don't improve, no matter how much they practice."

She sure hit the nail on the head. I had attended art school, but loads of my classmates couldn't paint their way out of a paper bag. However, we thrash about; we are all thrown in one direction or another by our natural talent, or lack of it. That's a basic truth we all have to learn to live with.

Reality does not necessarily extinguish fantasy.

Thelonious Monk did not get those unusual chords as a result of logic or theory. He opened his eyes wide, and scooped those chords out from the darkness of his consciousness. What is important is not creating something out of nothing. What my friends need to do is discover the right thing from what is already there.

Nothing is painted there yet, but it’s more than a simple blank space. Hidden on that white canvas is what must eventually emerge. As I look more closely, I discover various possibilities, which congeal into a perfect clue as to how to proceed. That’s the moment I really enjoy. The moment when existence and nonexistence coalesce.

But the visible is not the only reality. Wouldn't you agree?

There was a keen light there I hadn't seen before. Those eyes told me that no matter what happened he was going to pursue it to the very end. If you don't understand something, then stick with it until you do—that seemed to be Menshiki's basic approach to life.

If you think about it, it's akin to defining yourself as compared with another person. The difference is self-evident, but still difficult to verbalize. As you said, you can perhaps only understand it as a kind of tangent produced when external and internal pressure combine to create it.