Zestful Blog Post #277
Until I was about 11 years old, money was very tight at our
house. When you got something new to wear, you wouldn’t dream of just putting
it on any old time; you’d ‘save it for good.’ That is, you’d reserve it to wear
when you had to go somewhere special. If the item fell under the new school clothes
category you waited until school started, then only wore it to school, never
out to play. I believe some children still go out to play these days. I can’t
remember, however, the last time I drove down some residential street and saw,
for instance, two young guys playing catch in the street with a baseball and
their mitts. Digression, sorry.
The save-it-for-good habit has been hard to break. I still tend
to do it even with new t-shirts, which is insane. Another digression, but I bet
you can relate.
Moving along. When I was in my 20’s I hung out with a band
that played basic pop and jazz/funk at festivals and weddings here and there in
the Detroit area. We were just buddies in general, and it was fun to chill with
them on rehearsal nights. Once they let me play the tenor saxophone solo in the
Billy Joel version of “Just the Way You Are” with them at some local festival. For
that occasion, I wore a skirt and a nice top. Man, am I digressing today. But via
them I met a band promoter, a very young guy, who invited me to an after-hours
club in Detroit for a special show. He had managed to get three record producers
to agree to come see a lineup of half a dozen bands he repped. Each band would
play a short set. As we sat with drinks while the first band was setting up and
the producers were arriving, he explained to me his strategy: He would lead off
with the weakest group, progressing until finishing with a bang with the very
best one.
[We
listened to vinyl before it was retro, didn’ we?]
“Their excitement’s just gonna keep building and building
all night,” he told me confidently. He figured if he could sell even just the
last and best group to one of the producers, the night would be a success.
Aaaaannnnd as I bet you’ve guessed, the plan backfired. By the
time the third group took their bows, all the producers had left. I will draw a
curtain over the desperate measures taken by my young, inexperienced friend to try
to get the producers to stick around.
And you’ve already guessed the moral of my story today for
writers: Though it’s tempting to save your best stuff for some future
unleashing, it’s far better to lead off with a bang than hope to finish with
one. I’m not saying we shouldn’t carefully husband our material. But sometimes
saving becomes a reflexive habit. Spend it, enjoy the rush upfront, and feel
secure that more good stuff will come!
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in. [Photo by ES]
