Correction does much, but encouragement everything!

By Peter P. Jacobi

A thought wrapped with a fortune cookie.

The Food Network.

An Indiana University music student in private lesson with teacher.

You.

Together, the above become my subject for this month's column, this because of this writer's wandering mind.

The Thought

"Correction does much, but encouragement everything." I'll elaborate later.

The Chef

Sometimes, while eating lunch or dinner alone at home, I will switch television channels, from those repeating and repeating and repeating the political hubbub in Washington to the Food Channel, which provides better entertainment than politics, as well as lessons of its own.

Chopped, as you know, begins with four chefs gathered to compete for a lofty financial prize. They go through three rounds for which they must find ways of treating not only edible but tempting dishes to a team of three judges. The least favored prepared dish gets its maker eliminated, so that the original four contestants are reduced to three, then two, and -- finally -- a winner.

All the contestants have rich backgrounds. They have their own restaurants or food services, or they are chefs at eateries of prominence. But they will make errors, according to the taste buds and eyes of the judges, whose judgment results in elimination. If they didn't come to the show with expertise, they'd not even know how to put a dish together out of the outrageous combination of elements given them to work with.

But the competing quartet discovers through their actions and the judges' reactions that to be a winner, they must go beyond skill to creativity, and through their labors prove a love for food and cooking. One discovers while watching that they have a passion, and one concludes that the higher a contestant's level of skill, creativity, passion, and love for the craft, the greater the chance for success.

Take one more Food Channel show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, hosted by Guy Fieri, whose stomach, I think, must either be cast in iron or disintegrating. The food he jaws and gobbles, seemingly with the greatest of gusto, so heavily favors seasonings in the extreme. With my German and middle European background, I'd never make it through a single meal at one of those spots.

But Fieri has the courage and, apparently, an amazingly expansive love for food to try whatever is offered him. And he does it without slowing down or stopping. The channel shows his programs endlessly; each one consists of visits to three different eateries, and those eateries stretch geographically across the fifty states, north to Canada, south, and across a couple of oceans. His life cannot be easy.

But what amazes me even more are the chefs of the restaurants he visits. They demonstrate extraordinary culinary skills and the highest level of loving involvement. Time after time, one hears they've been at the same job for decades, day after day, week after week, year after year, preparing their specialties. Preparations they go through look and sound brutally complicated. In the process, however, the preparers seem glowingly joyous, proud, fresh, with an unflagging desire to do what they're doing again tomorrow. Love is definitely in the air. I'd be ready for the loony bin by the end of day 1. I love to eat, but the making of meals I can do without. Those chefs live not so much to eat food as to fix it.

The Music Student

The Indiana University music student in practice and lesson: As the local paper's music columnist and reviewer, I sometimes get to sit in on lessons and rehearsals. A young violinist and his/her teacher may spend an hour or more on a single line of music, striving to achieve the right combination of musical effects: the rhythm, intonation, flow, interpretive touch, and assurance that works.

The students will become increasingly aware that, if they decide to make music their profession, they will be doing this on a lifelong basis. The practicing, the rehearsals, the learning never stop. They will, in addition, not only keep a current repertoire fresh but seek to expand it. They will need to take care of their instruments, be it a violin or trumpet or human voice. They will deal with agents and booking and publicity and travel and social occasions and little time for restful privacy, or even family. A musician's life, for all the gratification it can bring, is not an easy one. Again, the musician -- and any serious artist -- must possess that combination of skill, creative urge, passion, need, and love. As with the life of a chef, so with a musician: the days and nights bring tiring and uninspiring repetition that, for success, the musician must overcome.

The Thought Wrapped with the Fortune Cookie

Writers, like musicians, like chefs, like other masters of an art or craft, face the same issues. They are called upon day after day after day to compose art out of language. No matter how they feel physically, emotionally, or mentally. No matter what the subject. No matter how difficult the task. Day after day after day. Story after story after story. Again, there must be skill, but beyond skill the creative urge, the passion, the need, the love.

That's where you come in: the editor. Working for you is a person who strives to show his or her skill, creative urge, passion, love. Try to remember that nurture can help, that "Correction does much, but encouragement everything!" Really do.

Peter P. Jacobi is a Professor Emeritus at Indiana University. He is a writing and editing consultant for numerous associations and magazines, speech coach, and workshop leader for various institutions and corporations. He can be reached at 812-334-0063.

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Comment:

"Thank you, Peter, for so eloquently expressing what drives creative people in general. As a multimedia artist, myself (writing is just one creative outlet among many), I can report that what drives all artists is love of their art for their art's sake. Remember Vincent Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime!" -- C.G. Masi