Are you a big fish in a small pond, or a wee fishy in Lake Michigan?
The real question is, what do you want your work to be?
If you feel like a small fish, you’re in danger of working (and sounding) like one more often than you’d like to admit. If you believe you’re a big fish, you may be more likely to sound great, but you may also lose sight of the shore, and lose part of yourself in the process. (In other words, don’t turn into a jerk. K?)
Water has always been a powerful medium for my peace and my voice. I was in Canada for a festival once, and found myself in a huge indoor pool by myself, with no one around. So I started to sing, and had a marvelous time working through a piece that was slated for the concert the next day. One of the best rehearsals I’ve ever had, and completely opportune. I’d like to avoid beating the fish metaphor to death, but there really is something about it that seems familiar to the experience of singing “in the zone”: being the music, gliding through the water one foot at a time, and not worrying about how far it is to the other side. It was transcendent and blissful.
So, what kind of fish are you, and what would you like to be? How does the way you swim through life affect your work? This one’s purely an exercise for pondering….
(Oops. That might be one too many. Nuff said.)
