Real talent

Available for 29 days

Spiritual reflection to start the day with Professor Alison Jack of Edinburgh University's School of Divinity. Script: Good morning. I’m no creative artist of any sort but I wonder if there’s a moment when those who are feel comfortable claiming that title as a description of themselves. The poet Seamus Heaney fondly remembered decades later going to register his son at a school in Wicklow in the 1970s and being asked what his occupation was. Oh, you can just say teacher, or educator, he said. He watched as the headteacher wrote down the Gaelic word for ‘poet’, and the moment stayed with him. Validation by others is important of course but perhaps the first step is owning the right to any title as self-description in your own mind. People are often reticent to call themselves runners when, in their own eyes, they just enjoy a jog around the park now and again. Or when does cutting the grass and pulling up the weeds, or keeping a row of pot plants watered, qualify you as a gardener? In both cases the bar should be pretty low, I think. And certainly at the point when you are pushing seeds into wee seed trays in the early days of spring and planning which windowsill is the best for training up tomato plants, there’s little doubt that you’ve earned the title of gardener. There are no gatekeepers to titles such as artist - of which there are many thousands in Edinburgh at the moment - or gardener, or runner, or many of the other descriptors which refer to things we do possibly as much or more for pleasure than for profit. When something brings us joy and satisfaction, and we find our level of skill increases as our interest develops, the title may be something we can grow into. Something we can take pride in, whether it’s acknowledged by others or not. And when it is, as it was by that perceptive headteacher at Seamus Heaney’s child’s school, who knows where that might lead. Living God, give us a sense of freedom to be people with talents which define and shape us, and let us be generous in naming the skills of others. Amen.