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I'm a big fan of George Harrison and recently got to take some time to read Olivia's 'Living in the Material World.' Wonderful book, filled with many great stories and images. What a journey to share.
And something I learned which I did not know was that he was a huge fan of organized racing events. Sponsored a McLaren F1 team, brought friends to share in the fun, etc. I also found it very interesting that George may have made a parallel between 'meditation' and the how skilled drivers are able to slow down internal / external stimuli, multiply them and access a higher plain of consciousness (arguably). I've made a similar comparison between the skills / techniques a professional musicians utilizes during a performance. Truly a serendipitous coincidence one might say.
I don't know about higher plain of consciousness but the music comparison is nice. Mastery of any skill means you don't need to think about what you're doing and can just do it, and use your thinking power to strategize and be creative. A car is just an instrument
I couldn't agree more and I've said the same for years! Motorbikes have an even greater connection between the senses and machine. I always purported that my motorbike experiences sharpened my multi-taking abilities in a variety of disciplines. I'm an ambidextrous lefty who's mechanical inclined but it wasn't until I seriously studied theory and performance that I was able to put my talents to good use. In professional music, there's typically an awareness that highly accomplished musicians can have about them that's not just 'non-verbal' communication(s) but as I said, an awareness of many elements / moments coinciding at once. I would very much describe it as George and the racers try to. I'll attempt to explain my experience of this phenomenon as best I can in lay terms. The conductor is like the coach for a professional sports team and essentially creates the playbook / calls the plays and operates the outfit as he sees fit. Now when you play for a symphony under this conductor, they control many things but primarily what is considered the 'time.' Time can be thought of as a metered measurement of a notes duration (this time is also dependent of speed of the note, impetus is the technical term) but this definition is fluid as well. For any given 'space' available within this time, there can also clearly be a front, middle or end to this 'space' which exists in the 'pulse' for any signature (there are many different types of common and compound time signatures). Pulse is nearly synonymous with 'beat' but 'beat' is reliant being defined by the time signature which it is written in. Music is incredibly complex. You have to really know your theory or be a savant.
Back to the track experience, to state this as simply as I can. I'd say it's like being continuously aware of all your vehicle inputs in that moment in the turn as it turns while also looking through / preparing the next turn but also seeing lead / follow vehicles while also literally being a drone the crow's nest viewing the entire field at the checkered. It's where that 'higher form of consciousness' concept comes in. Not for everyone and not something everyone can curate or even contemplate.
11-18-2021, 11:54 AM
