Learn something new – your brain will thank you
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/10/learn-something-new-your-brain-will-thank-you/?hpt=hp_bn12
I have tried to learn to play musical instruments several times. In middle school I played the flute for several years. I was shocked, though, at how fast I un-learned to play it. After having decided to quit I picked the flute up a few months later (less than the time of the summer break!) and couldn’t even remember how to hold the damn thing. That was the first time I was amazed at how little control I had over my own brain, but far from the last time.
I tried my hand at drums, lead and base guitar, but even though I could master the technical elements of playing, I never ‘got into’ playing and never really got any joy out of it. I figure that is critical: you have to take joy in your playing (no matter how much you suck to anyone else), otherwise you start to look for reasons to do something else instead. I really like acoustic guitar (am a big fan of Rod Y Gab; I _highly_ recommend them!) and toy with the idea of taking it up, but at this point I just don’t think I have the passion to get me through the early stages to the point where I might be able to take joy in playing.
I do take on new things to learn pretty often, though mostly in line with construction or ideas related to business ventures or inventions. I have sort of dropped recreational reading of new books, though I am happy to re-read many books I have enjoyed in the past (am re-reading “Battlefield Earth” now, something I really like despite its author’s relationship with the fruit cakes in Scientology). For some reason I find it difficult to pick up books by new authors and often even new series of authors I am happy with (it seems almost all my favorite authors are dead or dying anyway, mebe a sign that I am getting old). I am quite sure that there are excellent authors out there with excellent stories to tell, but I just can’t seem to summon the energy to pick them up (and to think that at one point I wanted to write scifi and fantasy myself). Partly I blame it on the price, but that is a bit of a cop out since we are regulars at a local used book store. A lot, I think, is due to lacking passion in my life right now. I struggle with depression a lot the last decade (even when I was homeless and destitute I don’t remember having such long bouts) and find it difficult to take joy in things, perhaps why I prefer to seek solace in books I have already read and know I will enjoy. Still, for the last year or so (I tie it to the instant when I realize all that time and energy I spent on my DNA sequencing chip was wasted because I got beat to market) I find it difficult to do anything but sit in front of the TV. Oh well, enough whining…
