Redtree Times

Clear Voice–At Gmeiner Art Center– Shows Ends Sunday

Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours.

~Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf (1927)

Very tired this morning. Yesterday was a busy day out of the studio and by late afternoon I was wiped out. This morning feels like a hangover, if I remember accurately what those felt like. It’s been a long time. I didn’t feel like writing this morning. Oh, I had thoughts. I just didn’t feel like actually doing the physical and mental act. Concentration and revving up an original post didn’t seem like an option.

I began going through old drafts that are kept in a file on this site. Unfinished beginnings and half-baked thoughts. Some are just waiting for a day when I am feeling sharp and ready to go to town on them. The problem is that on those energetic days I don’t revisit these files. No need. I find something right at hand to focus on. So, these ideas sit waiting for a day when I might stumble on them when I am sharp.

I had wandered around in my draft file for way too long. I had no appetite to expound on anything I came across. Then I opened the draft for this post which was simply the line above from Hesse’s Steppenwolf.

I don’t exactly remember why I created this draft about ten years ago. I can guess though.

Reading it this morning it struck me that this could a list of the opposing forces and drives that divide us and keep us separated.

Those seeking a life filled with a depth of feeling versus those who seek only superficial sensation.

Shakesperean drama versus reality TV.

Noise, pleasure, gold, business, and foolery seem far more prevalent in this world right now. Hessse saw it that way in 1927 and it probably been that way since time eternal.

We continue to slouch our way toward the trivial.

Somehow music, joy, soul, creative work, and passion have been relegated to the back seat of the bus. That saddens me because those are the very things I have sought all my life, even when I wasn’t yet conscious of that fact. The things that now make up most of my life. The idea that these things have become somehow devalued in this trivialized world seems ludicrous. And deflating.

As I said, these oppositions form a dividing line, one from which most of our problems stem.

Don’t know why this came up this morning. Writing about probably serves no purpose other than to utter the words aloud. There is no answer obviously. The choice between a life of deep feeling and one of gold and hedonistic pleasure is an easy one for the average person, even if the latter is a mirage, a promise than will never be fulfilled.

Jeez, now I am tired and sad. Even a little pissed off.

Thanks, Hermann, ya’ schmuck.

Just kidding. I know how things are. Same as they have always been. That being said, I am happy with my choices and the life I came to be living. Could do without the cancer but, hey, that’s just the luck of the draw.

Okay, I’ve depressed you sufficiently this morning. Job done.

Here’s a song guaranteed to pick you up. It’s Good Morning Starshine from the original Broadway cast recording of Hair from 1968. This album was burned into my psyche early on in my life. Tell you what, because I like you guys, I am throwing in another track, a favorite, from Hair. It’s The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In). A feel-good song but in a different way.

Now, excuse me, I am going to now lay on the floor with my cats. When I get up, I expect that you will have gone back to the trivialized world. As the old saying goes: git.