Hello again, SG land. Have I blogged for three days in a row? That has to be a record.
So, @charmaine stopped smacking me with the ruler... She said it was no fun if I kept coming back for it. Apparently, it really is the thrill of the chase. Next time I'll run.
But not too fast. I'm sure you understand.
On the menu today: (cue dramatic voiceover) What is your hidden talent?
This topic is really hard for me. When I am good at something, I tend to gravitate toward it with childlike focus and exuberance. So it's hard to pick something that I do well that is particularly 'hidden.'
Well then. To the list it is.
1. Storytelling: I have always been imaginative and creative; my mind is constantly cooking up personas and scenarios and I found the most geeky outlet that I possibly could: Role Playing Games. It started with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and expanded to include other types of role play, but in thirty four years since I started, the well has never run dry. I have in my head what some of my players affectionately refer to as "The Cast of Thousands." Because I flesh out my games to make them as plausible as possible, given suspension of disbelief, I have a ready supply of people in my brain ready to act as antagonist, protagonist... whatever role I need to portray.
In my Vampire LARPing times, my players are flabbergasted to discover that all my Non Player Characters have names.
What? What storyteller, in ANY state of mind would set an NPC afloat without a damn name? ("The kind who also has nine million holes in his plot," the Storeytelling snob within me snorts with disdain, every time I see it.) I try to make them 'real'. Hopes, dreams, fears, goals... NAMES.
Ahem. I sense a long rant about quality coming up... Suffice it to say, I've been doing it a long time, and as such, can pull this stuff out of thin air, off-the-cuff, right off the top of my head. So, yeah. That's a talent.
2. Writing: Yeah. Not so hidden, particularly here. It kind of goes along with #1 above. Same story, really. Attention to detail, pull all of this stuff out of my ass... usually. Sometimes I even do research! (That's how I know I'm serious.)
3. Magic Hands: Being as socially standoffish as I am sometimes, human touch is not a thing I can say I have an abundance of. That said, I've always been kind of a hugger. Don't judge. I also have a tendency to think that other people need human touch as well.
And that's true. But... Yeah, didn't need the road sign to see that coming.
We (as westerners particularly) have personal space issues. Trust issues. Touch issues. Intimacy issues... Hell, let's face it. We have more issues than USA Today. Just saying.
All the taboo, all of the conditioning that we get as a culture has the aggregate effect of turning us into a society of feral cats and Rhesus Monkeys kept in solitary confinement in a closet full of darkness and oozing fears. We fear touch. We fear being vulnerable. Even for a second.
So what does this have to do with massage as a talent?
Everything.
It's why it took so long for me to realize how good for you massage is, what it is to receive and what it is to give. Above all it's about relaxation and overall well-being. There is a long list of medical benefits, but those are part and parcel of training, not talent. My talent lies in "the touch," a term that is used loosely in the classroom setting referring to both physical touch and an intuitive knowledge of what's going to make you feel like a million bucks... or, in the case of Swedish, make you wonder how a girl, who weighs maybe a buck and change soaking wet, can make you feel like you've been run over by a truck (That's the licensed therapist who taught me technique and all the legal stuff that goes with it. Trust me, this woman is amazing.)
At the end of the day, I do it because it helps people, I'm pretty good at it... and there is nothing like sliding the heels of your palms down either side of a person's spine and getting that low, breathy moan. It's a very grateful, primal and honest sound. And if they fall asleep in the middle of the routine, I am not at all offended; it means I'm Doing It Right. There's no better compliment to my ability to relax a person than soft snoring.
So those are the hidden/notsohidden talents of mine. See you next blog-- Same Bat time, same Bat channel.
