Other Ways to Look at Writing and Learning

Old gardens are sometimes overgrown, and new owners cut back fiercely, for they feel smothered. If shrubs and vines are tapping at your windowpanes, some trimming is in order, but at first keep it light. Big shrubs, even when overgrown, represent a plus on any piece of property. Before grubbing out a bush or cutting down a tree, wait and see how selective you can be . . .

Forest trees that were misguidedly planted as foundation material are a pest in old gardens. They look out of place and block out light and air. Often they can't be cut back without mutilation, so a new homeowner grubs them out. We inherited just such a clutch of overgrown foundation plantings, including arborvitae, false cypress, hemlocks, and old-fashioned rhododendrons. I was all for taking them down then and there, before we made any changes to the house. But my husband objected, he can't bear cutting anything down--ever. So we waited until the alterations to the house were finished. By the time some windows had been enlarged and the interior lightened with fresh paint, those shrubs did not look so bad. Some still had to go, but our interior changes had made such a difference that it was possible to leave big bushes at the corner of the house, where they have since been pruned into large, distinctive specimens that I now would be sorry to lose. [Thalassa Cruso, from her book on outdoor gardening]

When a man in the beginning of his life is ignorant of everything, he has no scruples, finds no obstacles, no inhibitions. But after a while he starts to learn, and becomes timid, cautious, and begins to feel something choking in his mind, which prevents him from going ahead as he used to before he had any learning. Learning is needed, but the point is not to become its slave. you must be its master so that you can use it when you want it. You have to apply this psychology to swordplay. The swordsman must not harbor anything external and superfluous in his mind, his mind must be perfectly purged of all egocentric emotions. When this is carried out and the mind itself is "lost" so that even devils cannot trace its whereabouts, he can for the first time make full use of the technique he has acquired. No, he goes even further than this, because he now forgets all that he has learned, because he is the learning itself and there is no separation of learner and learning. Indeed, this is the ultimate goal of discipline in all arts where learning gained is learning lost. [Yagyu (with a - over the u) Tajima no kami)

What tennis actually comes down to--stripped of the trick shots, the weird, sensual body movements, the best in equipment and clothes, the search for the latest theory--is a dedication to those fundamentals supported by physical laws. You may think, "Yeh, but I want to have fun out there, I want a little variety. I want to try lots of different shots, move the ball around, keep my opponent guessing." Well, losers have tons of variety; their shots fly all over the court--and often beyond--simply because they fail to swing the same way twice in a row. Champions are those who take great pride in just learning to hit the same old boring winner. The only problem with playing a "straight down the middle and deep" system is that you need a high frustration-tolerance threshold because you're not trying anything fancy to end a point quickly. Most people don't have the patience to try to outsteady their opponent. They say, "Jeez, the ball's gone over the net three times. I've got to come in and do something big." So they try to hit a drop shot or they go for the lines and that's when they die. It's not easy to hit those big-time shots, so just be happy to keep the ball in play. Stick to the fundamentals and try to master them first, then you can get fancy. But you'll probably find an interesting thing happening along the way: the better you play the more simplistic you become in your approach. You find you don't need to get fancy. It's usually the players who just can't win who feel they have to showboat. This type of player hangs around every club in the country, scoffing at regular forehands and backhands, while saying, "Man, I just want to serve, volley, attack, and hit the overhead smash." He glories in hitting the cover off the ball and has very little respect for the common shot. But that "common shot" is what [made] Chris Evert the queen of them all . . . [--Vic Braden]

Oh, sir, doubt not but that Angling is an Art, and an Art worth your learning: the Question is rather whether you be capable of learning. . . . For he that hopes to be a good Angler must not only bring an inquiring, searching, observing wit; but he must bring also a large measure of hope and patience and a love and propensity to the Art itself . . . but having once got and practised it, then doubt not but that Angling will prove to be so pleasant that it will prove like Vertue, a reward to itself. [Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler]

Unorthodox grips produce unorthodox shots and unorthodox shots will never win tennis matches. They are very useful for one given point. They may even win throughout a set, but only sound, sane, sensible tennis will succeed in these days of scientific development of our players. Beware of the unorthodox grip for anything except an ornament to your structural foundation of form. Be sound, be sensible, be sane--and be Champion. Every year that goes by I am working closer to the middle road of Controlled Speed and Orthodox Form, and I find my reward in increased steadiness and power. [Bill Tilden, Match Play and The Spin of the Ball]

Only in so far as a man forgets himself and turns his mind to the keen analysis of livestock, is he able to progress toward perfection in livestock selection. You must become livestock-minded and be aware of the perplexing problems that confront the breeder who is selecting and culling to improve his livestock. Allow your mind to dwell on the imperfections as well as the perfections of the breeds of livestock. Study groups as well as individuals.

Convert your attitude to such an extent that the problem of livestock judging becomes a real and living task, rather than a means of attempting to place four animals in the order in which you expect the judge to place them. The desire to know intrinsic values in livestock puts the mind in a very receptive state for the most effective learning of livestock selection. [Julius Nordby, W. Malcolm Beeson, and David Fourt, Livestock Judging Handbook]

Not many times I see new player learn easy and quick to make good ground stroke in game. Most new player have trouble. You make mistakes, do not worry, you are human, just try to change soon. For while your game is like soft cement, you push around easy, then it becomes stiff, later you want to change something, you need dynamite.

New player, all he keeps in head for while is run and put racquet where ball is. He has no room to think to fit body to ball. Ball maybe too close, too far, too high, too much in front, behind, no different, he hits. He thinks maybe something is wrong, but he does not know what. He hits.

After while, he plays maybe 100 games, he has room in head to think more what he does with body. Now is time to change mistkes. Some player never make change. They play, play, play, they become pretty good even they move wrong, stroke wrong, think wrong. But after while, these mistakes cannot let them play better. One time in London theatre I see man play piano with mittens on hands. He plays not bad with mittens. Also, not very good.

Yes, you are beginner, soon as can, start to watch self--how you move in court, how you stroke. Do not be sorry you lose game for reason you take care. Let opponent be happy he wins. You can be happy you make some few good strokes.

Watch. Change. You let ball come too close, can't stroke with racquet near stomach? Next time, judge ball early, move body to proper position. You stroke right, but no power? Maybe you hit ball little late. Try little earlier, in front of front knee. You hit tin all time? Maybe wrist is not cocked. Check. Also check to see if you have proper position . . . crouch--feet apart--face side wall!

Yes, true, maybe you lose many games ever checking, checking, checking. But this way you correct mistakes, you learn to move and stroke properly. And after awhile, you have room in head to think how to beat opponent! [Hashim Khan, Squash Racquets: The Khan Game, with Richard E. Randall (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1967), 81-82]

On the act of cooking. I despise recipes that promise results without work, or success without technique. I have eaten too many short-cut piecrusts to trust anyone who tells women that pastry made with oil is just as good as the "hard" kind. Mere facility, of course, is no more a guarantee of good taste in cooking than it is in music; but without it, nothing good is possible at all. Technique must be acquired, and, with technique, a love of the very processes of cooking. No artist can work simply for results; he must also like the work of getting them. Not that there isn't a lot of drudgery in any art--and more in cooking than in most--but that if a man has never been pleasantly surprised at the way custard sets or flour thickens, there is not much hope of making a cook of him. Pastry and confectionery will remain forever beyond him, and he will probably never even be able to get gravy to come out the same twice. Interest in results never conquers boredom with process. [Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Entertainment (New York: Pocket Books, 1970), p. 7]

If subjected to a violent attack, you may often disconcert your opponent by compelling the exchange of two or three pieces. When, however, you are about to exchange officers, you must calculate not only their ordinary value, but their peculiar worth in the situation in question; for example, a rook is generally more valuable than a knight or a bishop; but it will happen, that by exchanging a rook for one of the latter you may greatly improve your game.

It is mostly good play to exchange the pieces off when you are superior in power, so that when you have the odds of a piece given to you by a finished player, you should endeavour to exchange as often as you can consistently with safety.

When an exchange of two or more pieces appears inevitable, look closely to see whether it is better for you to take first or to compel your opponent to do so. When one of the enemy is completely in your power, do not be too eager to make the capture-- there may perhaps be a move of importance which you can make before you take him. Beware also of snatching hastily a proffered man; it may be only given as a bait to catch a more important advantage from you.

If at the end of a game you remain with pawns against a knight and find it difficult to evade his repeated checks, recollect that by placing your king on the same diagonal as the knight, with but one intervening square between them, that you cannot be again be checked under three moves. [Howard Staunton 1810-1874, from The Chess-Player's Handbook]

IT'S AN EASY GAME: Everyone can learn to play golf. Once a player has mastered the grip and stance, all he has to bear in mind, in the brief two-second interval it takes to swing, is to keep his left elbow pointed in toward the left hip and his right arm loose and closer to the body than the left . . . and take the club head past his right knee . . . and then break the wrists at just the right instant while the left arm is still traveling straight back from the ball and the right arm stays glued to the body . . . and the hips come around in a perfect circle; and meanwhile, the weight must be 60 percent on the left foot and 40 percent on the right foot at the start . . . and at just the right point in the turn the left heel bends in towards the right in a dragging motion until the left heel comes off the ground . . . but not too far . . . and be sure the hands are over the right foot, but not on the toe more than the heel . . . and be sure the hands at the top of the swing are high and the shaft points along a line parallel with the ground . . . and pause at the top of the swing and count one, then pull the left arm straight down, and don't uncock the wrist too soon. Pull the left hip around in a circle . . . but don't let the shoulders turn with the hips. Now transfer the weight 60 percent to the left foot and 40 percent to the right . . . and tilt the left foot so the right side of it is straight . . . but not too still or the shot won't go anywhere . . . and don't let it get loose or you'll smother the shot . . . and don't break too soon but keep your head down . . . then hit the ball. That's all there is to it! [W. Timothy Gallway, The Inner Game of Golf]

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