A wonderful time with great friends last night. New friends. Wonderful people who have welcomed me into their circle of friendship. Listening to records, having fun, and being silly. A few of those albums came from a time when I was a young man in my formative years. There was an awareness, an unabashed sentimentality, and a constant spirit in those years that even at the brink of total annihilation a moment of compassion and unity could win the day. It wasnt pollyanna. It wasnt escapist. People sang about tremendously difficult things, and about how surviving them without giving into hate or despair could make them whole. People will often call it cheesy now, and even did then. But I dont think its cheesy...and I know its not new; the 80s just had a particular flavour of naked hope that is near and dear to my heart. These days it seems sentimentality is unfashionable. Expressing something without a certain amount of guarded cynicism or cagey irony is bound to get you responses ranging from a chuckling dismissal to out and out derision. Theres no political appetite for the visionary mindset that knows you have to start with the belief that what seems fiscally and practically impossible can be achieved if you can let go of knowing how youll get there. This is how the most wondrous and beautiful things are created. Many of our brightest and most sensitive fellow human beings have succumbed to despair, or cancer, or simply passed away having given all that they could give. Our great leaders and visionaries are dying with seemingly no one to replace them. But this isnt true. Vision and hope have more than a few standard bearers now; there are thousands, tens of thousands. Leadership is evolving into something that is subtler, but much more widespread. Many of us are looking in the wrong places. Look to your friends, your neighbours, and your fellow community members. Look to the people rolling up their sleeves and doing good works without any hope or expectation for much reward, recognition, or even thanks. They may not be immediately apparent to you. Most of all look to yourself and stop waiting for a politician, a pundit, or a great leader to emerge and show you the way. Those people can be excellent guides, and it is wonderful to have fine examples of humanity to learn from, but whatever you need to learn most will be very close to you. Most of all, please do not succumb to despair and cynicism. I have struggled with these things all my life; often needlessly. If you are in the grips of despair or depression I hope you find someone near you, or something within yourself, that helps you hold on. And although there are many injustices to be pointed out and brought into the light we mustnt be lead into thinking that cataloguing and sharing them all the time makes us observant and aware. It is a very crude lens to live through, and the most important things we have to learn are about ourselves. Anyway...I didnt mean to get all preachy. Faith and belief are pretty important to me; and I dont mean religion (though it is peachy keen with me if you find those things in whatever religion you may call your own). To me they are the basic articles of living. I didnt intend for this post to become so extensive. It just seemed to take on a life of its own. I was tempted to delete some or all of it several times. But in the spirit in which I began Im going to share all my sentimentality and idealism unvarnished, and largely unedited. The most important thing is right there in the song though: Stay...until your love is alive and kicking.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 20:37:25 +0000
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