Tuesday, May 6, 2025
I’ve known professional musicians that are unfazed when variance arises. The pros have worked so well with bugaboos, they almost welcome them, as it gives them a chance to practice their improv. They’ve learned the power of making light out of a sticky situation. They trust when a snag arises and relax in its face.
Snags scare people, and they become helplessly petrified. Faith is learning how to trust that you can deal with reality – the show must go on. Hangups freeze the unaware. We have an aversion to variance, which is a repugnance for a snag. We freeze, clutching our pearls. But a pro is not snagged by a “gotcha,” just a little blip to a pro. What helps ease the flow when things go “off script?” Do you practice aversion (distrust) or conversion (trust)?
A conversion is like a two-way kitchen door that swings freely. Aversion is a blockage. A spiritually-minded person has seen the light. They see both sides quickly – pros and cons – and can flip cons into pros like Harry Potter. Practicing your faith means that when you notice a snag, you work it into the script. You have to be converted, not averted, to see the ease of being on the spot. We must adapt and convert urgency into lightness, heaviness into levity, and death into inevitability, as easily as falling off a log.
A pro takes a con and smooths the rough edges, getting it unstuck. She trusts her proven ability to ride out the snags like they were part of the script or the score. Those who avert are bogged down, complaining that it’s not “supposed” to be this way. Practice faith. Practice improv. Turn it around – convert, don’t avert. A dash of humor will grease up a snag, and you’ll squeeze right through like a real convert. The rest are the frozen chosen, pretending to have been “saved.”