Reprise
I woke up this morning with the thought of having to repeat everything I did in the month of March all over again. How do I motivate myself to redesign a network that I spent every waking minute of a whole month to put together? I know it has to be done so there’s no point fighting it. But how can I admire the simplified complexity of my network block diagram for one instant and throw it in the trash bin the next? I had enjoyed the Herculean task and my moment of glory. But to repeat it again is no fun. Been there, done that.
I dragged my feet to work. I had a really tiring day – ten hours of steadfast concentration. It’s good to know that I am not rusty. When I reached home I found it in my mailbox. The original Broadway cast recording of songs of The Lion King. I smiled. Today wasn’t going to be so bad after all.
As I played the music and closed my eyes, the images flooded my brain. ‘The Circle of Life’ reminded me of the animals that filled the stage in the opening sequence. It was puppetry of the highest caliber on display. You know that there are humans maneuvering the puppets. They are present for everyone to see. But their movements blend in so well with the animals they represent that after a while you stop making that distinction. ‘He Lives in You (Reprise)’ brought the image of Mufasa’s spirit. I would judge this as the best moment in the musical. How much imagination would you need to think of something so intelligent and yet so artistically beautiful? Mufasa’s spirit – created by a jigsaw puzzle of face parts that float in the air and come closer even as the lighting puts it all together – covered two-thirds of the stage and dwarfed a fully grown Simba. That’s pure magic.
How do you keep yourself motivated to wear the same costumes, sing the same songs, dance the same steps and mouth the same words perfectly, again and again, two shows every night for ten years? As these images filled me, I realized that their perfection lay in the very task of repeating them over and over again, each time doing it a little differently, more creatively, evolving your talents and skills by finding something new around you, within you.
I often keep having to remind myself of such underlying principles in life. So I will redesign my network but this time I will do it a little differently, more creatively, improving my talents and skills. In the end it will be perfect.
