The Human Condition: The white board
By Daniel Schnee on December 1, 2021.
As an anthropologist I am fascinated by how modern technology has facilitated people being increasingly (and malignantly) self-centred. This new form of cyber-narcissism is a kind of spiritual blindness, and a psychological threat to the individual in its grip. I discovered a solution to this problem though, in a college classroom.
As both a university music graduate and experienced performer I was very confident in my playing when I started Grant MacEwan University’s jazz program. So when I performed in my first woodwind improvisation class, I was not surprised that the teacher asked me to perform for his second-year class: to demonstrate how a young professional was supposed to play.
I played two songs with the in-class rhythm section, and after it was over the teacher silently walked over to the white board. Then, in giant black letters, he wrote the slang word for feces that begins with “S”. I sat there in shock as he proceeded to explain to the class just how poorly I had performed every aspect of each song, and how just lacking in quality my improvisation was.
Afterwards I burned with rage and shame. How could he put me through such a merciless emotional flogging? He spent the whole class doing so, and even got the students to chime in on what they thought was wrong. Had I done nothing correctly? Impossible. I had already performed with international stars, and earned a music degree. Those huge letters he wrote burned like a brand.
I was thus presented with two choices: crying, or going straight to the practice room and getting so good at jazz saxophone that excellence would be my revenge. I chose the path of self-improvement, and practised all day and night from that point on.
Then something even more shocking happened. A few months later the phone rang, and world-renowned pianist Tommy Banks was calling to ask if I was available to perform in his Big Band. My teacher was a member of Tommy’s group but could not make it that night, so he suggested I replace him.
How in the world could my teacher do such a thing, after all he had said? Because he had been correct all along. I was not who I thought I was when we first met, and his methods were just the ego bootcamp I needed for future success. He had recommended me because I was now prepared to walk into that band with the skills and humility necessary to serve Tommy, not glorify myself.
If I had chosen a modern response – to insult, ignore, or randomly call people haters because they said something I didn’t like – I would have never been skilled or mature enough to help Tommy’s band uplift an audience. The truth is not hate, even when it is delivered in the form of an expletive.
That white board is a source of amusement now, an anecdote for musician parties and local newspaper columns. But it still serves as a highly effective personal reminder to always be productively self-critical, work hard and be humble, as this leads us to our truly great achievements and our best life ever.
Rest In Peace Rick Garn… only the best words were ever written on your whiteboard.
Dr. Daniel Schnee is an anthropologist who studies Japanese creative culture
