Faith Venture

Yesterday, I wrote about practice, or the lack thereof.

Here is a thought attributed to people as widely varying as Yogi Berra and Albert Einstein, but probably a Yale student called Benjamin Brewster writing in 1882 said, “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.”

That sounds profound, yet also seems a bit of nonsense.

However, I can (and do) have theories about practicing on my guitar. I know various scales to practice fingering, chord progressions for a variety of songs, maybe even a theory of tuning before I begin.

My practice should follow those theories.

I pick up the guitar. It is out of tune. I don’t feel like tuning it just then. I put it down. The theory might have been good. The practice sucked.

I sit to meditate. I know about posture. The theory of breath. Techniques of prayers and mantras. Some days I sit in a slouch. Can’t focus on my prayer verse.

I suppose there must be a phrase in all cultures uttered by parents and teachers, “Practice makes perfect.” But that is not accurate.

Perfect practice makes perfect. And that requires intention, attention, and energy.

This entry was posted on June 8, 2021 at 6:46 am and is filed under Disciplines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.