Blind Faith

It always makes me laugh just a bit when I hear people talking about “our God-given country.” If you believe in God in the way that most Christians do, you believe in one singular deity. Which is fine but to believe in any way that God gave us this country is just a bit silly. Wasn’t the idea of separate countries created by men? If you believe in such things, God gave us this world as a whole without borders or government.

I know that everyone gets super sentimental and “spiritual” remembering the events of September 11^th, 2001 but the differences in our religious beliefs is what caused those events to happen and in turn caused the last ten plus years of war. Now keep in mind this war of beliefs has been fought through battles ranging over the last one thousand years.

This is not meant as any disrespect to those who lost their lives and/or their loved ones in the events of 9/11. But if we are to learn and grow from the past we need to understand why they happened. In my opinion, blind faith is the root cause of most of our world’s problems. Blind faith breeds negativity on a devastating level.

I guess the logical part of my brain gets too involved when I try to understand the ideals of religion and government. “God bless America” is a blind blanket statement to enforce a sense of nationalism. But isn’t a nationalistic point of view what got the world in trouble during World War II? I mean we are not killing millions and millions of people in order to eradicate them from existence but we as a country need to be cautious with how we’re viewed. Its citizens call America the greatest country in the world, but I can tell you from first-hand experience that the rest of the world does not see it that way. Every great empire has fallen and fallen hard, and as the youngest country in the world we are like teenagers going through puberty: picking fights, growing out of control, and have no idea of the grand scheme of things.

Talking Dreams

Our dreams are out there talking to us; we need but listen. The problem is that there’s far too much commotion clogging up the airwaves. Distractions are abounding in this social-less society we live. Dingy are the horizons we bring in this world. The light to break the fog of ignorance and hatred is buried in the spirit of creativity. But the power of greed is burying our artists.

I’ve lived in many cities, each with their own unique feeling. All but the one I’m in had a spiritual quality about it. The cool crisp mountain air brought me to gaze upon the stars and envision the universe. The city of the circle lacks every bit of spirituality I’ve ever felt. The cloud of negativity surrounding this city is impenetrable. I’ve spent countless days watching the skies through beautiful sunsets and still I strive to connect. Perhaps I’ve lost my awareness, perhaps its gone forever? If that’s true may I live in the delusions of the past.

Many changes have come to pass, many more on the horizon. Sailing the seas of change.

Sore Hands and Mountains to Climb

In just a few weeks I fly to Finland to begin my second tour as a stagehand for Lindsey Stirling. As the time passes I can’t help but reflect on the amount of work that I have done to get to this point. My hands have provided the dexterity necessary to tie knots, pull ropes, and plug cables. They are 34 years old and each and every day they are sore beyond belief.

Every joint, tendon, muscle, and bone inside my hands hurts almost every moment of every day. I try to give them rest as often as possible but the truth is our hands are the most used tools in our lives. From typing, to eating, to drumming, to working our hands are always working for us. Having a background in drums and percussion I have an intense respect for stretching before and after any given activity. The factor I can’t control that has the largest impact on the pain level experienced in my joints is the weather. The pain comes rolling in with each passing storm as the barometric pressure changes.

Just like the weather, when changes happen too fast it is difficult to keep up, causing excess pain. My goal in the next three months is to keep the chaos in order amongst a multitude of massive changes. In three weeks I leave for tour, leaving my girlfriend behind in a city neither of us enjoy for six weeks. I return just in time for Thanksgiving through which I will be working, driving carriages. But then we both quickly need to pack our apartment to move the first week of December to Orlando. Mainly so she can work through the holiday season at Disney to make some decent money. But once I get her moved in it will be time for me to return to Indianapolis to finish out the remainder of my work with Yellow Rose Carriages through the end of the holiday season, of which I’m told is insanely busy. All, for the hope of having a little bit of savings and relocating, semi-permanently, to Orlando, Florida. 

After all of that I will fly back to Orlando just in time to catch New Year’s Eve with my girlfriend. Then it’s off to find work once again. Like I said, trying to manage the chaos inherent in a multitude of changes in a short amount of time. From percussing, to stagehanding, to carriage driving I’ve got my bases covered. I have no idea what I’ll be doing, but I guarantee I’ll be doing something I enjoy and with any luck I’ll be able to do what I love for a living. Mountains to climb one step at a time.

Standing on Mountains, Catching Stars

Even some of the best writers and musicians need a good editor or a great producer from time. Truth is, there are many of us in the world that are good at creating but not so great at editing. Usually because we are too close to see what needs to change to make it better. For my books or my record that are in the works, all I need is a good editor, someone to help me find the right textures or voices to use. I know that I have something interesting to say. Whether or not anyone else wants to listen is out of my control. But, if I can get it down in an approachable context and make it available I believe that there are people out there who will read/listen.

If we take a look at what society considers great musicians, and they are in many ways, classical musicians: highly educated, well practiced, and able to conquer the most difficult pieces of music. Most of them spend their whole lives playing someone else’s creation. They have become the greatest musical technicians. I applaud and highly regard that level of determination to get to that level of playing and success in life. I am not at that level of performance, near perfection, but I choose to focus my time equally on performing as well as creating. I have an immense desire to live forever through the music that I create. Immortality is at my fingertips; I need just to write something profound or breathe-taking.

This is where a great producer and/or editor come in. The ideas are flowing through the universe like shooting stars and I’m lucky enough to be able to catch a few here and there. The problem is that my star-catching net is too big. I need someone who I can trust to help me sift through the ideas and pick out the gems to focus on.

I’ve been on a path of observe and report for so long that I need to dive in head-first and spend some quality time engulfed in one idea long enough to find a finish to it. But then again, when is a creation complete? At what point does a symphony come to a resolution, when is the last chapter of the book complete, where does a record end? I’ve been so focused on enjoying the path of creation that now I must learn the art of completion.

So much as taken away from my creation lately: finishing school, finding work, moving across the country. But soon there will be no more excuses, no more delays. From this point on I will focus not only on my process but incorporate self-defined deadlines and goals of completion. On top of feeling better about completing projects, wrapping things up will open more doors of opportunity: publishing, further exploration of different ideas, and an aching need to refocus on performing. There’s no better therapy than laying into some drums for 8-10 hours a day.

There are always mountains to overcome but it seems that for every mountain I climb, no matter how tall, the next one is exponentially more massive. As I update my resume and reflect, I see the peaks that I’ve conquered and it reminds to push even harder to pursue my dreams. If I can climb the peaks I’ve passed, I can conquer what is yet to come.