I don’t know if you can relate to this, but I was in the bathroom and I was reminded of a phenomenon which dates back to childhood for me. The reason I got reminded in the bathroom, was because our bathroom here at the studio is full of weird stuff. Before you get worried, it’s nothing pharmaceutical or even biological. It’s equipment for making jewelry. There are weird machines and silver things floating in strange liquids and bottles of scary looking stuff and wire brushes and other hardcore jeweler lady things. Part of the bathroom is devoted to Victoria’s tumbling and sparkling work. I am not really sure what all that stuff is for, but every time I go in there I am filled with pride for her. She totally knows how to do something amazing that I do not know anything much about. And she has the wiry, floaty things to prove it.
I feel the same way about my other studio buddy, Bec. She’s got not one but TWO computers going at once. Her wall is dotted with post-it notes. She prints out big charts and has meetings with other smart people and they both point to the charts, and also the computers and the post-its and make decisions about websites they are designing. I hear words about functionality and pixels and other things which go in one ear and out the other, because I am shaking my head. Words get shaken out when I do that. I am shaking my head in admiration. I like it that she knows all about that stuff, that she is super good at it and she’s a leader in her field (like Victoria). I don’t understand much about HOW she does what she does, but I totally GET the end result. I love it that it makes me shake my head in appreciation of her smarts.
When I was a wee girl, my mum would often be buried under policy documents and legislation and hansards and things. I still to this day have pretty limited comprehension of that kind of stuff. I don’t really GET the language of those kinds of documents. I want to say what I want to say in just the WAY I want to say it. BUT I appreciate that there does need to be a common language in administration and government, and my Mum knows how to speak it. I remember feeling that this kind of fluency was akin to learning Latin or understanding hieroglyphics. Perhaps it is. That makes me proud of my mum and the things she does which I do not understand. Because I understand why she is doing them and that’s a language that she is really good at, and the fact that it’s not something I am good at makes it seem even more awesome and clever.
I could go on and on.
I love sitting next to my friend Michelle when she is moving things around on screen, designing a book I have written. I do not know exactly what she is doing, or how she is doing it… but I love and understand the end result. I love how fluent, competent and decisive she is. I really love her skill, I guess! I find it inspiring! I love the not understanding, because it makes me admire her even more!
Or : I send my manuscript off to my editor and it comes back smoothed into something more logical and cohesive. I love the way she can do that, the way she approaches my writing and nudges it into something more consistent and straight forward. I am constantly surprised and pleased by the suggestions she makes, because they are suggestions I would not make myself. I love her point of view. I love her ability!
Even watching people cooking things on TV shows pushes my ‘Wowee! Look at YOU!’ buttons. And don’t even mention the video at Melbourne Museum about the Tapestry ladies. That makes me want to pat the nearest stranger on the back and marvel at how good people can be at stuff.
There are many more examples of this kind of awestruck admiration in my life. Do you ever feel like this?! Sort of ‘I don’t know what you are doing there, but I can see how great you are at it and I think you are amazing!’ Or maybe this is just me. Maybe I am being weird.
xx Pip