Plow to the End of the Row

[carolinestarr]

It was 2004. While driving to meet my critique group, I happened to catch an interview with Adrienne Young, a folksinger just starting out. She talked about her first album, inspired by some advice she’d gotten while struggling to make it as a musician:

If you want to do this with your life, stay focused and see this through. You’ve got to plow to the end of the row, girl.

That simple phrase – plow to the end of the row – was enough to push Adrienne to continue. It became the title of both her album and lead song.

I can’t quite explain what that interview meant to me, hearing an artist choose to create despite the struggle, to push against fear and all things sensible and make it “to the end of the row.” I’ve carried this image with me for six years now, the plant metaphor standing in for artistic endeavor, the plow the unglamorous slog needed to dig deep and make it to the end.

Recently I stopped by NPR.org, wondering if I could find that interview, and there it was, waiting for me. Hearing Adrienne’s words a second time reminded me how my rows aren’t very straight and are often loaded with stones. But the soil gets better as I work it, and each little sprout grows stronger than the last.

How have artists working in other mediums encouraged you?




Caroline Starr Rose
http://carolinebyling.blogspot.com

I have a link to this interview but can't figure out how to do it here.

[Mira]

Plow to the end of the row. I love this.

Very nice, thanks.