Another Day in the Bonus Round
We're alive! We can turn this ship in the way we want to go!
My wife, Lynn Bush Gill, got this for me for my 50th birthday in 2013. I have read it with relish and even loaned it to others, much to her displeasure, I must admit. My subtitle about being alive - another day in the bonus round - is about how, while we are here, we have an opportunity to influence the direction of our culture here on the planet. If not us, who? If not now, when? - and yes, if you haven’t sensed it already, this bit of writing is not about my late father and his work but is rather a more personal bit of “Harrowing” - a scraping of the surface with an intention of digging deep.
Grooving - and getting into a kind of deep conversation with you all - that’s what I’m really hoping for as “Harrowings” gathers more paid and free subscribers. I am nothing if not grateful for the attention that you all show as I attempt to amplify signals through the noise of cyberspace. This medium feels like a very comfortable way of doing that amplification. It can be quite expansive or remain fairly compressed. It’s all about to the writer - the creator - of the content.
So, that is going a bit into the meta-discussion of writing and that’s not entirely what I wanted to do this evening. I really wanted to talk about my discipline:
As the Wooten Brothers showed us on last Wednesday night at The Birchmere: “There’s nothing wrong with striving to be the best / Hard work and dedication put to the test!” - No day off - no vacation - Hard work and dedication….yep.
Perhaps it is even better put by Robert Fripp:
“Without a practice, without a discipline, life is pretty much a series of contingent events, moving from one situation to another, jumping from one mess to another, or simply sleeping through it all.
With a practice, we develop a structure of acting in the world; within which we construct an interior architecture (emphasis mine), moving to realize what we are, uniquely, born to achieve.” - Robert Fripp, Tuesday, 21st of January 2020 - Bredonborough, Middle England.
An interior architecture - a way of acting in the world - and delivering “acts of quality” as he calls them - this is what I hope to achieve through the discipline of keeping “Harrowings” alive.
I conclude with this image - shot years ago - as we move past each other both in “real life” as well as in cyberspace, perhaps we can grasp what a miracle it is that any of us are here at all - and how many factors had to come together to make our existence here and now possible.
Charles Bukowski beat me to the punch with his remarks about how we are all going to die: “What a circus! You’d think that would make us love each other but it doesn't. We’re ground down by trivialities. We’re worn down by nothing.” - or words to that effect. I might have messed up the quotation a bit. It is something that I carry within me though like a bit of glowing coal with which I might kindle a fire for others.
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….and, finally, it would be so good if you all would leave comments. Feedback will help me refine the content to make this even more appealing to a reading audience.