Journey or Way?

Discussing adult learning with a fellow trumpeter and knowledge-seeker yesterday. We are of a similar age. Often on Mondays we spend a couple of hours together. Some of the time we spend in free-flowing conversation, then we get down to trumpeting. Jonathan is a far more experienced and able player than I am. He’s also a really good teacher, albeit informal. He pays subtle attention, noticing every slight change in my sound and how I’m making it.

Our conversations and our practice sessions often spur questions such as why we have chosen such a difficult instrument and what our is purpose is in learning things at our venerable ages, such as:
- trumpet, which we both play for fun, with no intention to do more than perform occasionally, let alone play professionally:
- languages - he Italian, me Greek - which we learn for interest, with the intention of using it on vacations

Inevitably we chewed over the old chestnut: “it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey”. It’s a phrase that comes up quite often, even though we both dislike “journey” in this context.

We could say “it’s about the process, not the end result” but that sounds too technical, too managerial.

What feels most right for me is thinking of it (learning trumpet, learning Greek, whatever) as a practice - a “way” in the Japanese sense of “do” (kendo, judo, aikido, kyudo). It’s an activity that I undertake purposefully, methodically and mindfully.

I’m not grinding toward some finish line; I’m cultivating a relationship with these things that speak to something essential in me..