The Definition Of Crap.

On LJ everyone's making lists of 5 things they are crap at.

Here's mine:

1/ The cup and ball game.
2/ Going into town without buying something.
3/ Not rising to the bait.
4/ Remembering the 8 times table.
5/ Keeping my fingers off cheese grated in exactly the correct quantity for a recipe.

Making that list is not as simple as it looks. You try it. It took me ages, and it occurred to me that I thought I was crap at a lot more than I actually am. So I got to thinking about why we constantly assume we are crap at things when actually we just haven't learn how to do them yet.

For instance, if I were to try to build a house it would probably be crap, and if I were to try and translate Japanese into Russian it would also be crap, but that's only because I haven't learnt how to build houses and I don't know how to speak Japansese and Russian. I'm crap at Poker because I never learnt it. I'm crap at reading music and crap at playing the guitar because I don't practice enough. And today I'm crap at doing my work because I've got things on my mind and it's easier to divert myself from them with the internet than it is to divert myself by battling with complicated mapping software.

Then there are things we are crap at because we don't really want to do them or we are scared to; I am crap at ringing people I love but whom I haven't spoken to in a while, and I'm crap at giving up smoking. I'm crap at riding a motorbike and I'm crap at getting up in the morning.

There are also things we don't like doing so we're crap at them too, I am crap at listening to the football on the radio because I don't follow football and so to me it's like trying to make sense of a language I have never heard before.

And then there are all the things we are crap at simply because they're completely impossible or impossible at that point in time; I am crap at fitting into size 10 jeans because I'm not a size 10, I'm crap at writing with my right hand because I'm left handed and I'm crap at seeing those magic eye pictures because I have imperfect vision in my left eye but a normal right one, and you need both eyes to see at the same level to make the pictures work.

So what's the definition of crap? Things you can't do no matter how hard you practice? Things you can't do no matter how much you will yourself to? Things you see a certain way no matter how much you try to see them in another?

If you think about it it's not very often that you try and try and try but you simply can't do. I'm good at many, many things, crap at a few and have a very great deal to learn.

But I really am and always will be crap at the cup and ball game.