I sure hope a person does not have fixed limits on how they can re-allocate mental resources. I've never stuck with anything for more than 10 yrs. I have about 2 tracks going at any given time, occaisionally three (and then I burn out,) or only one (at which point I also burn out
. I'll have to die aufully young if I don't get to keep adding/reinventing.
on One passion, developed from birth: I did once ascribe to that notion. I dropped it when I was about 12 and ended my first "phase." It was quite a life changing experience, and I replaced that obsession with religion. I needed religion to cope with the loss of the passion. BUT. Maybe, just maybe, I would have had to stick to that obsession in order to really become great. I have not become great, but in the process of raising DS I've been thrown back into that obsession a bit, and it's interesting how many times I've been told that I have to become the expert for him, that "you really have a handle on this," or that "actually there's supposed to be a paper comming out on that." Maybe, if I'd gone to medical school, I would somehow have become great. No-one will ever know. You just can't do a double-blind study on that kind of thing.
I think I want to help DS and D? find their passions. I think that if they find them early I'd like to support them to hold on... somebody tried with me, but it was already too late. But I don't think I want them to be too much like Erdos, I want them to have kids, spouses, hobbies, great diversions, and flights of the spirit (think Roman Holiday). I think those things are worth having. I want them to wake up on a sunny morning, and successfully cook themselves bacon and eggs and a perfect cup of coffee, and enjoy the breeze without thinking too hard about it.
And I don't want them to have to be *the best* to survive. I want them to be rounded enough to get by in the patent office as it were. Einstein must have worn socks back then, right? He *could* wear socks, he just chose not to when the option became available. DH tells the story of another mathematician he knew who was "probably almost" as good as Erdos, but who had to steal food at conferences to make ends meet.
I feel like my father, and to a lesser extent I, have gotten caught up in that problem, being not good enough to trade exclusivly on an extreeme skill, but not quite rounded enough to do ok as "normal" people. DH is good enough to trade on his extreeme skill, but partly that's because it's in a high-demand area. He might be very sunk if he were even 10 yrs younger than he is.
Which is why I kinda think making coffee/basic cooking is part of the "price of entry," and reading and writing, and probably some minimal degree of bilingualism, how to not get hit by cars, some basic history and geography (more of that than my school board thought necesary). I'm sure I have blinders on, though. What am I not seeing? The not getting hit by cars thing only came up because of something DH did that was very dangerous (that brought up this whole line of thinking), he was totally confused by my anger and I eventually realized he had no clue of any kind that what he did was STUPID.
It's all very complicated. I want my kids to have that shot at the stars, if it's a posibility for them. The support to stick to a single great passion if they want to. I want them to be able to flip flop and reconsider and reinvent themselves. I want them to have it all... which is where the question of ballance comes in.
-Mich
