Talent

We went to watch the Arlington Color Guard perform their amazing show "Linescapes".  It was a phenomenal show and an evening well spent with some dear friends.   These kids always amaze me with their talent and all the hard work and dedication and perseverance they demonstrate by putting together a complex show like this.  I know from Alyssa's days in guard that it is hard work, and often times she felt defeated like it wasn't worth it.  In the end she was always glad she stuck with it.  It changed her life and made her a better person.  Sometimes it doesn't seem like people are willing to really work at things anymore....they want everything to be handed to them.  That is what I hear about our youth,  Then I see talented youg kids...working so hard to take their raw talent and refine it into something beautiful...into art.  And then I know that even though it often seems like the world is headed in the wrong direction, after a night like tonight, seeing what these kids have done...my faith in the future is restored.

" But talent - if you don't encourage it , if you don't train it, it dies.  It might run wild for a little while, but it will never mean anything.  Like a wild horse.  If you don't tame it and teach it to run on track, to pace itself and bear a rider, it doesn't matter how fast it is.  It's useless."

~ Elizabeth Hand