Late spring and early summer: a time of graduations, engagements, weddings, relocations, and other sorts of moves.
Musicians sometimes address these changes directly, and at other times they choose indirect ways to go about it.
“Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” - Thomas Edison
I don’t know about you, but these days I feel like much of society has the attention span of gnats. We aim to play the long game but are interrupted by something shiny on aisle six. We set goals, make those bucket lists, and say ‘someday’ more times than we can count.
There are some remarkable places and times in this world that intrigue, inspire, and cause intense fascination. One such place in the US is the Old Southwest. It lives large in our culture, art, history, and traditions.
Luckily for us readers, an extraordinary new book is here to take us there: Legends & Lore of the Old Southwest.
As times continue to shift, as ways continue to change, the power of community, connection, and friendship can continue, too, as a source of hope and possibility. Friendships old and new, brief connections as you go about your day to day life, friends at distance and close by, long conversations and occasional messages: all those nurture connection. They are reminders of ways to keep balance and focus as world events and personal ones fill the world with change.
Here are several ways artists have explored connection in their music.
Changing and shifting times, indeed.
As we often remind you on this series, community and connection can be sources of strength in such times.
Music can be a reminder of community and connection. It can at times offer a gateway into ideas about these things, too, or a reminder of connection and shared ideas and values even across distance and time.
Winter.
Holiday season.
Grey skies, maybe snow or rain.
A lot to do as the year draws to a close.
Maybe you find this part of the year too busy, too cold, or too isolating.
Perhaps, on the other hand, you greet this time of year with anticipation and joy.
Maybe there is time and place for a bit of all these things.
Autumn into winter, changes in the angles of sunlight, continuing political and social changes of all sorts, the ongoing changes and challenges we each face in our personal lives: that’s just a bit of the way things continue to shift.
In shifting times, it can be helpful to think about community.
Communities can exist in person and at distance, online and face to face. They may be made up of those who are family near and far, work colleagues near and far, people you see in the course of everyday events such as a trip to grocers, a stop at the library, a regular visit to a favorite cafe.
This music could offer you ideas to spark reflection on the ways community works through these shifting times.
Shifting times, indeed.
In the midst of large-picture changes and day to day life events, music can be a way to reflect and to learn, or a method for speaking out in protest.
In these changing times, music can also work to inspire, to connect, to remind of hope.
We are here on this planet to learn.This spinning schoolhouse in this vast universe is the perfect stage to play out our dreams, ambitions, foibles, and proclivities.
My journey from Broadway and film to a pilgrimage around the world and back again began with an NDE. Although I was raised with a very traditional Christian background, I needed to explore the various spiritual traditions in the world.