“When will you take it seriously?”

[You - VI]

You stay up until 2 am improvising on the piano. Regardless of talent, you have wonder and imagination and inspiration . . . and people take note—more than one family member has asked you to play at their wedding.

You paint politically inspired art. And give them away by the dozens. People begin to notice and make requests.

You tinker for months on end in your garage to figure our how to get 20 extra horsepower out of your 1975 mustang. Coworkers notice and ask for help.

You come alive in the garden and take special interest in crossing-pollinating tomato plants. You develop a blight-resistant hybrid . . . friends and neighbors offer to buy your vegetables.

And then the question comes: When will you take it seriously?

In other words, When will you go to music school, pursue art at the university level, get certified as a mechanic, or sell at the farmers market?

"Taking something seriously” means getting the certification, getting the degree, generating an income, keeping the books, and eventually making a career out of it. It means, “When are your going to submit that thing you love to measurements of legitimacy and success that we are all familiar and comfortable with?”

And underneath the question, lurking in it’s shadow, is this admission: We don’t know what to do with raw, uninhibited, child-like passion.

Maybe it’s the measurements of legitimacy and success that need to adjust. Not your love for painting. Or gardening.

At the very least, you owe it to yourself to answer: “I already am.”