Forgetting to Praise the Scribbling

Below is my daughter’s first attempt at her personal art.

I love this.

I can only wonder what she sees here. An ‘A’? A cursive ‘s’? A yarn galaxy? The baton path of a conductor during Symphony No. 5: Adagietto? Or perhaps her color coded map at 2 years old?

I see hope. I see her at the MOMA. I see her finding a metaphor. I see her trying to say something.

And so I must praise, promote, and ask for more scribbling…for it is the yes given now to the scribbling that will lead to her to masterpiece(s) later.

When is the last time you praised the scribbling of your followers?

How or why would your followers ever give you an ear if you never praised them at the get-go?

Think. Pause for a moment. Allow this to be heavy.

How much incredible music have we missed because someone was told they weren’t musical in music class?

How much jaw dropping art have we missed because coloring outside the lines never won best in show at elementary school?

Emerson says it better than I ever could…“Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be.”