Harrowing the moment
And Substack
Yes! Do the work! That’s the whole project at this point and when it comes right down to it, putting fingers to keyboard is when the work really gets going but before that?
There needs to be time for reflection - for sitting and doing nothing very assiduously - concentrating on just letting whatever is floating by make its appearance in consciousness. The trouble, if trouble there be, is in us, and not in our stars.
So, I’ve used “Do the Work” by Julian Simpson as a springboard to get me writing again. I’m evaluating the Harold B Gill Foundation as a project going forward. The amount of material my late father left in his wake is daunting. I admire his scholarship and continuing project of putting flesh on the bones of the inarticulate of the 18th century. My father shared a birthday (January 16, 1933) with Susan Sontag and one of her writings, which I’ll be paraphrasing momentarily, came to my attention earlier this morning.
In it, Sontag notes that writing of the type I am doing now - or attempting to do anyway - does not belong to the tribal animal that is classified as “Homo sapiens sapiens” - it is synthetic. It seeks to mine the language for just the right turn of phrase to convey something higher of the human spirit than mere being….but in our day-to-day affairs, we want something more “run-of-the-mill” - something that is “given” language - passed down from our forebears in the oral tradition. Song, poetry, scripture - the language of ritual - that’s what keeps the tribe together. That’s what lets us all know that we belong and, conversely, who doesn’t.
So, I’m put in mind of music - which is that which has the power to transcend our day-to-day grind - and our intellectual pretense. Music is what puts us apart from other species as well - and it is our species universal language. Take sheet music written in any culture and it can be read and played by anyone who has been taken into the confidence of Music and taught the sacred scripts of the bass and treble clefs.
All this is leading into the much anticipated podcast on the healing power of music which will be launched within the next few months. We need to work out some of the details and invite guests, but Active Potential - a long-established business helping those in the music industry with all kinds of physical issues - will be the forum for it. That much we have agreed.
So, readers of “Harrowings” - come along for the ride! I’m not certain where it will be taking us but I’ll be writing about it because that is what it means to be “Doing the Work.”
Onwards!
