THE BEST, AND THE NEXT

After penning down a piece which I consider to be utterly revelatory, one thing which I find out, is that I am scared. After the ovation is the loudest and the whispers of ‘she’s so good!’ has died down, I ask myself what the next inspiration would be, and where it would come from.

Will the best overshadow the next? Will the next be half as good as what has been considered ‘best’ before it? I wouldn’t know, at least not until I have immersed myself in the next, not exactly aiming to beat the best, but utterly aiming to give my best to it. For if I produce only the best copy of the next, it just might be the new best, right?

But I’m well aware, not one to be ignorant of something as true as the fact that when people ask us- that glint of ‘I know you’re a genius!’ in their eyes, about the best; wanting to know how we were able to produce something so beautiful, we begin to search our hearts for the truth, for that really big answer to this really big question.

But we know the truth, don’t we? We know that we didn’t necessarily have any particularly strong illumination, and like gold within a pile of rubble, so was the best located within our other products. We didn’t make it with any more zeal than the others but it seemed by itself, to have taken more root than the others. 

How, do we move on from the best?

Don’t live in the shadow of the best

You know, your best might have even been named amongst the classics, and you wonder how you can even beat your own record- because you didn’t really make it into what it was- on its own volition, it had simply become what it was, and so you begin to work fervently to re-enact the self-same conditions under which it was produced and effectively, what end up doing is living in its shadow. 

I’m not sure I have to tell you that this isn’t good, but I’ll say it all the same. It isn’t good. The best soil for a new crop to grow isn’t necessarily the kind of soil that made the last one grow (I’d quickly leave the subject of soil and growth before someone outs me on the premise that I have no idea about what I’m talking about, which is true, by the way). 

We seem to have been wired to think everything is exact, but that isn’t the way of art. Art is dynamic; its motion, fluid rather than mechanical; its method, one of feeling and experiencing; not of proving and rationalization. Living in the shadow of the best only proves one thing: we are scared of what we carry, we are subconsciously afraid of what lies within us, and like others, we wait in anticipation- the only difference being that this anticipation of ours, is laced in fear, which needn’t be.

Un-name the best; strip it of its glory

The best is only the best, for as long as we agree that it is the best. The easiest way to let go it, is to create a new best, but first, un-name the old best, in your mind. Do not look fondly upon it, instead do as scripture says, ‘not that I have attained the mark, but forgetting those things which are behind, and looking on to those things which are ahead, I press on…’

When there is no glory attached to it anymore, we see it for what it truly has become; something of the past.

Pour yourself into the next

Allow yourself to savor every moment of the next. Stop looking tentatively over your shoulder to ascertain if the next is as loved by others as the best. Mostly, stop checking within yourself to see if you’d find a flicker of discouragement, or a fleck of the dust of failure. Stop it already.

Instead, do the beneficial. Pour yourself into it, work with your heart and your soul; and watch it come to life, watch it take shape and take root and visualize how something so lacking in luster, can be transformed into gold.

And yes, I present to you, the new best!