Bernhardt Wall: Sunbonnet twins baking. (1906)

" … just like every other Pairing of The Muse and her surroundings …"

The Muse continues to hone her political presence. Two months into her campaign, she's repeated her elevator speech dozens of times and has yet to completely memorize it. She is not practicing as an actor might with the idea of replicating each performance but with the notion that each iteration might prove authentic. Authenticity changes from performance to performance as each occurs within a unique context. There's never any telling which part of any context might prove defining. Sometimes it's the people, and other times, the hall; consistency couldn't possibly be the purpose of her practicing.

Here in this wine country, there's a lot of talk of Pairing, for each wine best combines with some sample of each menu. The canny chef surprises his patrons by Pairing unexpected combinations, not merely white with fish and red with flesh. Red's not generic but features an array of flavors and textures. Same story with the whites, not to mention the burgeoning icy rosé choices now that it's Summer. The Muse pairs, too, her elevator speech with her surroundings, sometimes stumbling into deeply satisfying combinations and other times falling short. An unanticipated influence always intrudes. Last night, she performed under the lingering influence of a recently pulled tooth. Afterward, she mentioned that she'd inadvertently overrun her ibuprofen. She'd quietly excused herself to take her medicine.

It's a genuine wonder that anyone ever improves anything since each iteration poorly mirrors every prior one. There's little repetition to leverage. This principle probably holds equally true whatever the content, whatever the context. Each performance proves unique and different. I wonder what precisely anyone ever manages to build upon to Hone their performances. We're not starting from scratch, but we're also not not starting from scratch. We mostly hypnotize ourselves into believing we have a leg up when we don't. We slide as a result rather than faunch into each fresh performance, even though an objective observer might notice how unique each performance seems.

I've never written this story before, though I've written many, many, many stories. Each one served as practice, but not practice prospecting for perfection. Like this one, each one started with a blank page and little more than the barest notion of what might fill that page. I found my way to the bottom of those pages, but each engagement proved slightly different. Indeed, my purpose was never once replication. It was instead more like invention, the product never an identical twin of any predecessor and probably also not much of a fraternal twin, either. Like The Muse, who had never before attempted to deliver her elevator speech after having a tooth pulled, nobody would suspect that she wasn't already fairly practiced. She had practiced plenty, Honing her message and attending to her presence. It's just that this latest one seemed different than ever before, just like every other Pairing of The Muse and her surroundings and of us and ours.

©2023 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Honing, #PureSchmaltz