Complacency, in E Sharp

I wish my parents had forced me to play the piano when I was younger. I love classical piano music. I love the idea of the piano. I wish I could walk into a room with a grand piano and be able to play Claire De Lune. What a cool hidden talent that would only surface on rare occasions. And what a shame that I couldn't have allowed my passion for baseball to take a step down every once in a while to squeeze in something new.

So I'm left with what? The ability to throw 70MPH when I see one of those radar gun games at the ballpark? Absolutely. Which is awesome. But with no other true childhood passions or even hobbies, well my repertoire seems to be lacking.

But why do you have to learn this stuff when you're a kid? What am I waiting for?

We as adults tend to fall into this habit of complacency. Forgive me for generalizing. Obviously, there are those of us that enroll in classes after a 40th birthday, or finally take art lessons before a vacation touring museums. But the majority of us just figure that we're now playing with the hand that we were dealt. So let's just make the best of what we got and see if we can't create some sort of happiness.

I wasn't forced to take piano lessons when I was younger, I have never been too musically inclined, and I was definitely not blessed with the most slender and agile fingers, but if playing the piano is something that I wish I could do, then why don't I go learn? What is one night a week? Just a couple of hours of practicing instead of facebooking and TVing. Frankly I would welcome the change of pace, while also getting out of it something I've, at least recently, dreamed to be able to do well. So why the hesitation? Why didn't this come up until right now?

I may be talking about hobbies and talents for the focus of this, but realistically, this can be applied justifiably across the board. If you don't like your profession, what are you waiting around for? If you wished you wore different clothes, drove a different car, decorated your house in a different way, but somewhere along the line, whether because of financial reasons, or because of a fear of change, you've stayed stagnant, then you're just living in a safety net. And I tell you what, speaking from seemingly eons of experience, playing it safe can only get you so far.

Tony Hoagland once wrote, 'As long as there is desire, we will not be safe.' And I bring that up now to say that as long as you have the desire to change, to experience, to do whatever it is that you're not doing now, then that portion of your life is not safe. But if you let that desire dwindle into nothing more than a fading fantasy, one never challenged or tested, then you're doing nothing else besides trapping yourself in the softest, most deceiving bars of a jail cell that you can imagine. They might never hurt you, but they will never let you out. The day you look at your life as something that you won't change, as happy or as miserable as you might be at that moment, that's the day where you forget what it means to live.

Complacency is a plague. Avoid it at all costs.