Eleanor Roosevelt is reputed to have once noted that there are only really two possibilities in life:

Success and Quitting! [Consider this carefully, it changed my life when I heard it.]

Unlike most of the rest of humanity, in Mrs. Roosevelt's view, failure is not the opposite of success; it is a component of it. It's a fair bet that none of us would walk upright if we had let failure stop us as infants. But as adolescents (and as adults) we often become more sensitive to how we appear to others and less willing to fail. And that often makes us less willing to try. We give up a part of our potential to our fear of failing. I learned this indirectly from Eleanor, but....

	Maybe you'll be the one to teach your students to not let failure stop them;
	Maybe you'll be the one to put failure into a healthy context of progressing toward a goal;
	Maybe you'll be the one to unabashedly sing loudly and off-key into the lens of a camcorder.... [Then again, maybe it'll be your assistant.....]

Documenting your class's Blues song---whether you are in front of, or behind the camera---is a great way to preserve the effort and the lessons that have gone into your Blues. And it is a great way to defend funding for Arts-in-Education grants.

Isn't it funny how someone who is completely comfortable in front of a bunch of barely socialized kids can freeze up when confronted with a group of reasonably well-behaved adults?

Or a video camera?

At times like this, it is useful to reflect on the fact that we spend an inordinate amount of time showing our children and students how to work, and a minuscule amount of time showing them how to play. If you are afraid of being a fool in public, you will never have much fun on stage. This is a Zen thing: you will succeed by being willing to live with your mistakes, by being willing to mess up.

If you would like to begin to assemble materials for more in depth listening and reading on African-American music, culture, and Blues, in particular, the Resources section may be a helpful start.