I Call Do-Over!
The subtle art of the refresh.
Did you know I have won the NBA championship at least forty-seven times?
What? You don’t remember? It all happened between approximately 1978 and 1983. Each time I put on a stunning display of athleticism and basketball heroics. The only thing more impressive than a kid between the ages of seven and twelve bringing the Walter A. Brown trophy back to Los Angeles for the first time since 1972 was that each one of the resounding victories came at the last second by a skyhook buzzer-beater similar to the seemingly unstoppable Kareem Abdul-Jabbar1 of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Okay… uh… I owe you an apology. My opening statement is a bit misleading. Instead, what I should have stated for greater accuracy:
I have lost the NBA championship at least eleventy billion times. I tried to bring the Walter A. Brown trophy back to Los Angeles for the first time since 1972 on a last-minute buzzer-beater skyhook, and I missed the winning basket. It either clanked off the rim, rebounded off the backboard, or missed the goal entirely with a silent airball before bouncing off of my neighbor’s roof into the front yard.
Luckily for me, I was able to call a do-over on the last-minute shot, thus eventually winning it all forty-seven times, or giving up because it was getting dark outside.
The “Do-Over” is arguably the greatest superpower every human is capable of achieving and executing. Don’t like how something turned out? Call a do-over. Time swirls backwards, wrongs are undone, slates are wiped clean and you in fact get a second chance to make a first impression... except when playing the Gershwin Piano Concerto in F for an audition or maybe when you amass a pile of life regrets, or…
(Ignore those silly links to previous Low Notes that I wrote not more than six months ago that may contradict this month’s edition. This is totally different.)
I am on the verge of some fairly impactful do-overs. Next year, my family will make some massive changes in our lives, including changing jobs, changing schools, changing houses, and changing cities. We’ll make new friends, meet new neighbors, and most importantly, we’ll find new favorite neighborhood restaurants. As my current trombone career comes to a close, I will approach the next chapter like a do-over, beginning a new career doing... something. Now THAT’S a great cliffhanger, right?
Today begins a big do-over on a literary level with a complete rewrite of my current novel. I spent the last two months examining my latest work under the scrutinous judgment of a talented book coach. When we began, I had a story with a great premise, massive plot holes, and directionless characters. After completing our painstaking work of examination, dissection, and understanding the driving engine of my story, I will begin again with Chapter 1, page 1. It may not be the same scene where my first draft began, and if all is done right, the same characters may do different things, say different things differently, and hopefully will have a ton more depth. I’ll also retain a better understanding of who the readers are that will eventually buy this book and their literary demands. There may be a different narrator, a different voice, different clothes… and the list goes on and on. Do-over.
I am also setting a completion date of Labor Day, September 7, so I can attend the next Journey to Jupiter writer’s retreat with a completed second draft. (Applications are open now!)
I Do-Over and You Do-Over Too!
No one needs to ask why we do the do-over. Pressing the reset button is one of the greatest displays of control over a situation we possess. Sometimes we make it happen in broad daylight, calling it out loud like announcing a car interrupting some game we’re playing in the street (or chasing a wayward basketball). Other times we do it staring into a mirror knowing exactly what got us to this moment and how we’re not going to make that mistake again… again.
We do-over anything we can in real life even without calling it out. Clearing out all the dead plants in your garden and planting new seeds to start anew. Slapping a new coat of paint on your walls to freshen up a dead room. How about buying a slipcover for your coffee-stained couch that is too comfy to get rid of yet? All do-overs and all normal practices.
How’s that lifestyle change working for you? It’s not? Do-over. Check the calendar… It’s March. If you made New Year’s resolutions, there’s at least a 70% chance they’ve been thrown to the wayside. Why not call a do-over?
(There’s also a 99% chance I made that figure up as I typed it, but I’ll wager there’s a 70% chance that I’m close to the actual number. However, there’s a mere 51% chance I’ll stop with these stupid percentages.)
As I type this, my band is about to begin “tour prep” for our annual two-week trip across part of the country, and let me tell you… I am NOT in tour shape. These chops can’t sustain through a full concert as they should, and so, it’s time to build them back up. From a practice perspective, instead of hammering our music over and over on my face like a crazy man, I’m focusing on fundamentals: long tones, scales, and articulation exercises. To me, that’s a do-over. Go back to Day One stuff. That also includes not presuming (much safer than assuming) that my chops will do everything they’ve done before. Time to build them again from the ground up.
The tasks before me are not new to humanity. Countless books have been rewritten from scratch, trombone faces have been woken from the dead, people have moved, changed jobs, started new lives, and more. If you approach your tasks with ice and bandages, or a needle and thread, you might be making repairs over a scar. If you think of your work zone as a blank space, you can enter it with no judgment, no mistakes to make again, and then build it from a fresh start.
Is that how all of real life works? Of course not, but it can if you think of it that way. I’m calling a do-over on a few things, but not on you, my faithful Low Note readers. You’re perfect just as you are, and Kareen agrees, right Kareem?
So, what are you waiting for? The great do-over begins right now… Now… Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnow. Okay, it begins when you say your do-over begins, but don’t wait too long. There’s no better time than the present to…
Write on!
During this same time period, I saw Kareem in person at an AYSO soccer field. He walked by me as I was warming up for a game, and I shit you not, I came up to his knee cap. That is a tall, tall man.
We also saw him play at the forum!!
I also met him KAJ at an ESPN - The Store (RIP) event. He really is crazy tall.