Give “No” A Second Chance
- Posted by: Joe Williams
Here I am at the restored Inukshuk during the September 2008 Dialogue desert walk. The Inukshuk was first used by the Inuit People of Canada mark trails to help people find their way. This one was built by Dialogue alum Wally Cherwinski from Ottawa, during the 2007 Master Class. Wally, you’ll be pleased to know that every group since then repairs it in your memory and in the memory of all Canadians and for all Dialoguers. Even today, it still helps point the way.
I read this article from an NPR email that I received. It struck a cord with me, so to speak. Maybe it will to you as well.
Imagine yourself in a Parisian cafe in the spring of 1931, eavesdropping on violinist Samuel Dushkin and composer Igor Stravinsky, seated at the table next to you. From their conversation, it appears Dushkin has asked Stravinsky to write him a violin concerto, and, since Stravinsky himself is not a violinist, he’s consulting with Dushkin on what is and what is not possible on that instrument.
Stravinsky writes a chord on a napkin and passes it to Dushkin. “Is it possible to play this chord on the violin?,” he asks. Duskhin looks at the napkin and says, “No.” Stravinsky seems quite upset. “Quel dommage!,” he mutters. When they both leave, you might safely assume, as you finish your café au lait, that’s one Violin Concerto that will probably never see the light of day.
What you couldn’t have known in the café was that when Dushkin returned home, he took up his violin and decided to try out Stravinsky’s chord anyway. To his amazement, it was playable. Dushkin quickly telephoned Stravinsky with the news. The Concerto was back on track.
“When the concerto was finished, more than six months later,” recalled Duskin, “I understood Stravinsky’s disappointment when I first said ‘No.’ This chord, in a different dress, begins each of the four movements of the concerto. Stravinsky himself calls it his ‘passport’ to the entire work.”
And on today’s date in 1931, Dushkin gave the first performance of Stravinsky’s concerto in Berlin, with the composer conducting.
How often do we say “No” to something because we initially don’t think we can do it, or we don’t want to change something in order to do it? I’m a great example of that, myself. But when I let it sit a while and revisit it, I see it in an entirely new light. For example, a past Dialogue Master Class asked if I could take the big 15-foot long planning map and reduce it to something that could be put next to their computer so it would be easier to refer to as a guide. Of course, my first response was, “What, are you kidding? That’s impossible!” But I followed the rules of Invent-O-Matic, kept quiet and just let the inner “No” blast around inside me for a while. But I couldn’t get the thought out of my head. So, weeks later I took a stab at it, and Prest-O-Matic, the handy-dandy “PocketMap” was born.
So try this: Everytime you first think “No” to something, give it a second chance. Take a shot at it. Try.
You never know where it may lead.
