# Chapter 122

Effortless. That is what the work seems like, when a master is doing it. Effortless. But the appearance of effortless beauty is not an accurate reflection of what has preceded this moment. My wife and I have lived in a number of countries over the decades and we have learned some difficult languages and some easier languages (if there is such a thing). And my wife is a marvel, a complete master, a musical phonetical linguistic genius, you should hear her speak the language of the country of where she is now! But what no one but me sees, are the hours and hours, daily and more daily, of intense diligent effort that she puts into this flawless seemingly effortless flow of language that wells up within her and spins out like silk when talking. No one seems to account for the years and years of labor that made it possible. For some reason people want to think that Brenda was just born multi linguistic and that the rest of us aren’t the prodigy that she is, but the reality is that the rest of us just will not work that hard. That’s right, we are lazy bums, unwilling to apply the diligence and discipline required to master something.

Effortless doesn’t exist. Oh it certainly appears to exist, because we just saw it with our own eyes, but it is an illusion, a mirage, a shimmering magic show, that does never convey the work, the dedication, the effort, the years of labor behind the illusion. As my dad has often said, “when someone makes it look easy, you are watching a master at work.”