Have you ever wanted to try to do a something, but never did because you were afraid you’d be really bad at it? (I’m talking to you, perfectionists.)

Well, let me introduce you to someone who didn’t let incompetence stop her. Her story is almost unbelievable, but totally true, I promise.

Olivia Waxman, writing for Time magazine, said: It sounds like a farce: [Florence Foster Jenkins was an] eponymous socialite, a woman whose singing voice is so bad it’s good. But Jenkins was a real person—and if she were alive today, she’d probably be going viral on YouTube.

Jenkins became somewhat of a musical cult figure of the 1920s, 30s and 40s, probably because of her musical . And yet, still she sang. And sang. And sang…just for the love of music.

So what about you? Is there something you’d like to do just for fun, but you hesitate because, you say, “Oh, I wouldn’t be any good at it”?

Here’s some encouragement to bite that bullet because, as author Kate Bowler has said, “we’re not aiming for perfect. We’re just trying to remember to ask ourselves: How does it feel to try?”

NOTES:

Bowler, Kate. Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Convergent Books, 2022.

“Florence Foster Jenkins.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins

Kinney, Alison. “Black Pearls Before Swine.” The Paris Review, September 22, 2016. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/09/22/black-pearls-swine/

“The Real Florence Foster Jenkins on Film.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcs9yJjVecs

Waxman, Olivia.  “What It Was Like to Hear the Real Florence Foster Jenkins Sing, as Told in 1934.” Time, August 11, 2016. https://time.com/4439621/florence-foster-jenkins-reviews/