sic transit…ktl.
Sep. 12th, 2007 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ricardienneToday the beginning of Latin class degenerated into a discussion of how much our Latin and Greek skills suck, in comparison to most of history. Specifically, that by this time in our lives, we should have been able to take Greek dictation and write it down in Latin. My end of the table ended up not terribly convinced that things like modern medicine are an adequate recompense for the loss of this kind of skill.
Ironic joking aside, I was thinking about it this afternoon and I realized something that I hadn't ever considered before. I am accustomed to get depressed about my inclination to polymath insofar as doing other things keeps me from putting in some the work on cello that I really should be doing if I want to have a career in that direction, or just achieve a truly high level. "If I were in a music school/only concentrating on cello/able to practice 8 hours a day…" What I hadn't done before was think about it the other way. What if I didn't play music, and could put all that time into my other studies? How much I could accomplish if I spent the four hours a day that I do in a practice room in the library translating and learning fine points of grammar, and reading secondary sources. Maybe then I could achieve some kind of fluency in Greek and Latin.
Anyway, maybe this will help me keep things in perspective.
Ironic joking aside, I was thinking about it this afternoon and I realized something that I hadn't ever considered before. I am accustomed to get depressed about my inclination to polymath insofar as doing other things keeps me from putting in some the work on cello that I really should be doing if I want to have a career in that direction, or just achieve a truly high level. "If I were in a music school/only concentrating on cello/able to practice 8 hours a day…" What I hadn't done before was think about it the other way. What if I didn't play music, and could put all that time into my other studies? How much I could accomplish if I spent the four hours a day that I do in a practice room in the library translating and learning fine points of grammar, and reading secondary sources. Maybe then I could achieve some kind of fluency in Greek and Latin.
Anyway, maybe this will help me keep things in perspective.
