Howard Zinn
Alex Chilton
Mark Linkous
Ed Thigpen
J.D. Salinger
Some names you may be familiar with. Some you may not. All five of these people played a large part in aiding my development as an artist, a critical thinker and a person as a whole. Unfortunately they have all been taken from us in the last few months and the voids they have left behind will never completely be filled.
When people close to you die the world’s orbit seems to shift a little bit. Little things in life mean a lot more. Hugs, smiles, laughs, birthdays and even brushing your teeth can gain new meaning. In some inexplicable way it can gain a new importance. I may not have met any of the people above personally, but their passing has effected me deeply none the less.
All of them came from drastically different backgrounds and for the most part worked in different fields. They all however created works of art and educational treatises that were extremely influential to me and many others. Though they may not have been household names as some of their peers were, their impact can be felt and heard and learned around the world and will be for a long time to come.
Of course losing some of my “heroes” turned the spotlight back to focus on my own ego and what kind of impact I am going to leave on the world. Will I be just another guy who raises a family, cashes some checks and then fades into obscurity? Will I do something extraordinary that reverses the revolving of the world and explodes everything that has come before me into dust? If I had the answer to those questions I most likely would not be writing this right now. I would hire a ghost writer to do it and then claim all the credit for myself!
I have been very fortunate in that I have been able to meet a number of my “heroes” in person. And other than a small handful of them, they have all been very humble, kind and generous people. I think that has been more important to me over time than their various talents or reasons for their fame. Once the initial shock and Oh my GAWD!!! I cannot believe who I’m talking to! faded into background noise in my head, they were really interesting people to talk to. So when you get right down to it all these famous folks seem to be just like you and me.
I don’t plan on being famous anymore like I did when I was seventeen. I don’t dream at night of sharing the stage with U2 and Peter Gabriel like I used to. Even though those were some pretty cool dreams, and every time I hear “Solsbury Hill” or “Where The Streets Have No Name” I still picture myself up there playing drums in front of a crowd of thousands, my aspirations are somewhat more personal now. I want to be a good dad. I want to be a good husband. I want to be a good friend. I want to be a good man. In Yiddish, I want to be a “Mensch”.
That may not seem as sexy an aspiration as rock star. It might not even be as great of a conversation starter as being a culturally defining history professor. But it is my dream. It is the goal that I strive for each day. I may not always achieve it, and I don’t always expect to but I try.
For those of you who don’t have children, it is the hardest thing you could ever do if you try to do it well. It is also the most rewarding and inspiring endeavor as well. I am by no means the first person to realize this, nor will I be the last you hear it from.
People told me when we first got pregnant that I wouldn’t really understand until the kids were born. I of course thought they were crazy. Then my son showed up. They were right. I didn’t really understand until I cut the umbilical chord and said his name for the first time. At the sound of my voice, he stopped crying. His tiny arms reached up for me and he took my fingers in his hands. I understood it then.
My wife and I have been married for almost ten years now. It hasn’t been easy and on more than a few occasions we almost didn’t make it. I wasn’t always a good husband to her and I am incredibly fortunate that she stuck around anyway. We did not get handed the life we had always pictured that we would have. Circumstances rolled in like waves trying to wash us apart and break the frame around our dream of a perfect life. Lucky for me she loves the ocean and as we let the frame break we swam as hard as we could and found new pictures. This time we found them together.
It’s hard for both of us to let go of those old pictures sometimes. But there is no resisting and there is not much choice in the matter. So every day we watch the colors change, follow the brushstrokes and see what takes shape. I guess the trick isn’t to put life inside a picture frame at all. You can’t box it up like that and expect it to be real. Life needs to roll around and splash down on top of the water color you just finished painting. Somewhere in the smush that remains is what’s real.
Maybe that’s what Messrs Zinn, Chilton, Linkous, Thigpen and Salinger were getting at in their work. None of them seemed to care about the picture frame. They all painted outside of the lines. That might have been why they weren’t as famous or popular as other people. But it also may be why their work resonates so much with me. I found them in the smush.
Howard Zinn: www.howardzinn.org
Alex Chilton: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Chilton
Mark Linkous: www.sparklehorse.com/
Ed Thigpen: www.myspace.com/edthigpen
J.D. Salinger www.salinger.org
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Alex Chilton
Mark Linkous
Ed Thigpen
J.D. Salinger
Some names you may be familiar with. Some you may not. All five of these people played a large part in aiding my development as an artist, a critical thinker and a person as a whole. Unfortunately they have all been taken from us in the last few months and the voids they have left behind will never completely be filled.
When people close to you die the world’s orbit seems to shift a little bit. Little things in life mean a lot more. Hugs, smiles, laughs, birthdays and even brushing your teeth can gain new meaning. In some inexplicable way it can gain a new importance. I may not have met any of the people above personally, but their passing has effected me deeply none the less.
All of them came from drastically different backgrounds and for the most part worked in different fields. They all however created works of art and educational treatises that were extremely influential to me and many others. Though they may not have been household names as some of their peers were, their impact can be felt and heard and learned around the world and will be for a long time to come.
Of course losing some of my “heroes” turned the spotlight back to focus on my own ego and what kind of impact I am going to leave on the world. Will I be just another guy who raises a family, cashes some checks and then fades into obscurity? Will I do something extraordinary that reverses the revolving of the world and explodes everything that has come before me into dust? If I had the answer to those questions I most likely would not be writing this right now. I would hire a ghost writer to do it and then claim all the credit for myself!
I have been very fortunate in that I have been able to meet a number of my “heroes” in person. And other than a small handful of them, they have all been very humble, kind and generous people. I think that has been more important to me over time than their various talents or reasons for their fame. Once the initial shock and Oh my GAWD!!! I cannot believe who I’m talking to! faded into background noise in my head, they were really interesting people to talk to. So when you get right down to it all these famous folks seem to be just like you and me.
I don’t plan on being famous anymore like I did when I was seventeen. I don’t dream at night of sharing the stage with U2 and Peter Gabriel like I used to. Even though those were some pretty cool dreams, and every time I hear “Solsbury Hill” or “Where The Streets Have No Name” I still picture myself up there playing drums in front of a crowd of thousands, my aspirations are somewhat more personal now. I want to be a good dad. I want to be a good husband. I want to be a good friend. I want to be a good man. In Yiddish, I want to be a “Mensch”.
That may not seem as sexy an aspiration as rock star. It might not even be as great of a conversation starter as being a culturally defining history professor. But it is my dream. It is the goal that I strive for each day. I may not always achieve it, and I don’t always expect to but I try.
For those of you who don’t have children, it is the hardest thing you could ever do if you try to do it well. It is also the most rewarding and inspiring endeavor as well. I am by no means the first person to realize this, nor will I be the last you hear it from.
People told me when we first got pregnant that I wouldn’t really understand until the kids were born. I of course thought they were crazy. Then my son showed up. They were right. I didn’t really understand until I cut the umbilical chord and said his name for the first time. At the sound of my voice, he stopped crying. His tiny arms reached up for me and he took my fingers in his hands. I understood it then.
My wife and I have been married for almost ten years now. It hasn’t been easy and on more than a few occasions we almost didn’t make it. I wasn’t always a good husband to her and I am incredibly fortunate that she stuck around anyway. We did not get handed the life we had always pictured that we would have. Circumstances rolled in like waves trying to wash us apart and break the frame around our dream of a perfect life. Lucky for me she loves the ocean and as we let the frame break we swam as hard as we could and found new pictures. This time we found them together.
It’s hard for both of us to let go of those old pictures sometimes. But there is no resisting and there is not much choice in the matter. So every day we watch the colors change, follow the brushstrokes and see what takes shape. I guess the trick isn’t to put life inside a picture frame at all. You can’t box it up like that and expect it to be real. Life needs to roll around and splash down on top of the water color you just finished painting. Somewhere in the smush that remains is what’s real.
Maybe that’s what Messrs Zinn, Chilton, Linkous, Thigpen and Salinger were getting at in their work. None of them seemed to care about the picture frame. They all painted outside of the lines. That might have been why they weren’t as famous or popular as other people. But it also may be why their work resonates so much with me. I found them in the smush.
Howard Zinn: www.howardzinn.org
Alex Chilton: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Chilton
Mark Linkous: www.sparklehorse.com/
Ed Thigpen: www.myspace.com/edthigpen
J.D. Salinger www.salinger.org
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