Music!

There is a classic verse...something like... For every season...turn, turn, turn...

And so a path emerged......
who knew when at eight years of age as a child agreed to be taught how to play
this thing with white and black keys..... in such a strange yet orderly lay out!
a lark...a diversion...a momentary curiosity!.....why not!!!

Now well over fifty years in.......and other than the special people in my life...
the love of my wife, mom, children, grandchildren, extended family and close friends...
nothing is more important and pivotal!

You see my friends...we have an invisible gift that has been bestowed upon us...
it has been nurtured by all humans through the ages...
it penetrates all boundaries, and divides...it illuminates...soothes...
and reminds us of the depth of power that we humans have and hold....
from the first moment of life to our last breath...it is there and ever present!

Thru it we celebrate, we mourn...
We bathe in its warmth and glow, we rally behind its power and majesty...
We find mystery, we express anger and frustration without harming anything...
We bare our soul....show our vulnerability...laying bare our most intimate feelings,

We express joy, have fun, awake the inner force that moves our bodies...
suddenly we are in motion...in rhythm to the pulse...immersed in the flow!
And then.....we are floating...euphoric...ever present...
not medicated in any way but thoroughly intoxicated...it is palpable...it is dense...
sometimes soft and gentle...oft times harsh and jagged.....
intellectual and then not...metaphysical...but then basic and earthy....
like soap bubbles blown into the air...
or the sharp crack of the whip to the back of the forlorn and oppressed....

It is the work of the angels...and the devil...expressing the supreme power of the universe...
the infinite...and yet it is finite, divisible, and determinate
while at the same time it cannot be determined, understood, and defined....
All the contradictions that embody our human condition
are there to be studied, expressed, rehearsed, refined, and communicated....

Mystery, kindness, solitude, comradeship, solidarity, loneliness, isolation, despair, joy, happiness, vindication, conquest, and majesty.... sorrow, pain, resolve, pleasure, reflection, repulsion, attraction, love, fancy, lust....reminiscence, celebration, catharsis, playfulness....
child-like, grandiose, militant, and then sensual, feminine, masculine, provocative, demonstrative, reclusive.....

I say there is no life without that invisible, and powerful communication system
that refuses to be owned by one group, race, language, party, state, country...
that is truly universal in spite of the divisions we humans have created to somehow define us....

For me it is the essence...the food I need for my soul....the reassurance that all is good....
that we humans are worthy....simply because we can 'do this' alone and together...all of us!!!!

So I'll tell you this....had I known what I know today...
those ten minute practice sessions I 'mailed in' in grammar school...
would have been at least an hour...
those hour long jam sessions in high school.. and college would have been three or four.....
those eight hour wood shedding practice sessions of scales and arpeggios
when I finally realized how cool being able to play piano...I mean really play!!!
they would have started way sooner in my life....

I rejoice today in the limited mastery I have on those white and black keys...
sure people can hear my playing and recording work coming into their car from satellite radio... and millions of people throughout the world have heard me play...
heard my recordings...heard me mix and record...

So what!

It would not be...except for the one...very important thing....

Music!!!