We’ve been watching a lot of the Olympic games at our house this week, and because the surfing is happening in Tahiti and time zones are a thing, we’ve caught a lot of the surfing events live.
I grew up in San Diego and spent summer days at my grandma’s house. This was the view from her front door. A lot has change in the thirty plus years since I was a girl, but not the surfers. They still love this beach. I still love watching them catch waves. I still have zero desire to go out there and join them.
So we were watching the Olympic surfing, and it was a day when things were relatively flat. Nine swells out of ten weren’t surfable. During one of the heats the clock was even restarted after ten minutes of the thirty had elapsed because both judges and surfers deemed all the waves unsurfable.
It was at this point that I made one of my favorite mom jokes, “I think I could be an Olympic surfer.” This week I’ve also claimed I could be an Olympic gymnast, but only when Stephen Nedoroscik was filmed napping, and an Olympic rugby player, but only at half time. But the surfing…
I like this quote from Steve Martin, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” But what does that mean when someone’s sport has long stretches of seeming inactivity? And gee, what do I know about seeming inactivity? I’m drawing parallels between surfing and writing now. The books that we read and enjoy are the equivalent of catching a wave, the work to write and publish those stories feels a lot more like bobbing endlessly up and down in the water.
What do surfers think about when they are out there in the flat water? What are they even doing? Are they imagining they are a dragon slayer and there are just no more dragons? Looking at you Laird and Gabby Hamilton.
I like this other quote by Ira Glass, “The most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work.” So I have the same question for Ira. What does a lot of work look like when the waves aren’t coming?
I haven’t published any books this year. I haven’t queried any of my new manuscripts. I’ve been paddling around, bobbing up and down, writing short stories, learning more about marketing, making friends, plotting books, drafting too many of them at once, trying and trying again.
When I played in a community orchestra the conductor always said, “Play the rests! You have to play the rests.” It’s true. The entire orchestral piece could be ruined if rests are truncated or ignored. The summer I spent two weeks (and two days) in Austria and Switzerland. I didn’t do any writing. I did a lot of playing. I did a lot of reading. I did a lot of exploring and living. I played my rest. I came back and started drafting a story idea I’ve been playing around with since January.
I’m not a surfer, and I am not an Olympian. I don’t know what goes on in the naps, the half times, and the swells. I recognize that it is an important part of their process. They’ve done a tremendous amount of work to be at the top of their games. They are so good at their sport, it is is impossible to ignore them. And they play their rests with gusto.
I like the idea of excellence meriting attention. I appreciate the need to be prolific when it comes to artistic pursuits. And I know that sometimes the way to get ahead, is by resting and playing and bobbing up and down.
What are some of your favorite quotes and what are you watching when it comes to the Olympics?