I
thought this might be a good thing to do on the first day of the new
year. Or the worst possible thing to do. Either
way... This is my resolution, to get in the habit of musing.
If I can eat oatmeal every day, then surely I can set down a few
thoughts in writing every day... or so. In both cases it's
all about staying regular.
Back when I created a link to this page on my website, I fully intended
to write regularly. But then there was the problem of what
would be appropriate to write here--a problem I still haven't really
solved. During the last eight weeks or so I've jotted down
any number of topics that I thought might make for good musings. There
was one that was gonna be all about TV commercials, including a
comparison of the three different Optimum Triple-Play songs... an
objection to the self-contradictory lyrics of the Alice Peacock song
used for the Hershey's Bliss commercial... a lament that toilet paper
commercials can't be more specific in their claims ("Poop sticks best
to Cottonelle"... well, it's true.)
While I was working on the HONOR CD I had a meditation about "mixing as
metaphor." I was thinking about all those ones and zeroes
that would eventually be etched onto a CD as the final product of the
work I was doing. And I thought about all the myriad
variables I could change around to try to affect the outcome and get
the optimal mix. And then I thought about human genetic code
with all the A's and G's and T's and C's there in the chromosomes.
And then it seemed like maybe all we humans were individual
tracks in some vast audio project that was being mixed by an unseen
hand, with our levels constantly being brought up or down, our EQ
adjusted, our signal processed in various ways... all in an effort to
achieve that perfect mix of human society. Or was the
metaphor about just two people mixing their genetic code together to
produce a child who represented some new, better arrangement of
AGTTATGACCA? Or was the metaphor about just one person
trying to find balance among all the different aspects within himself?
I don't remember now. But it was pretty heavy at
the time when I thought of it... You would have been impressed.
Of course the best thing for me to write about would be thoughts
flowing from and related to my current writing project, GOLDEN BOY OF
THE BLUE RIDGE --a kind of creative journal that would help me
formulate my own ideas about the show. Back during the
workshop I wanted to write a Musing inspired by the preface to Playboy
of the Western World, where Synge writes "People have grown sick of the
false joy of musical comedy." I thought it was kind of
ironic that here I was trying to make a musical out of this guy's play,
and that's how he felt about musicals! And then I would have
gotten into, well what exactly is the "false joy" and how can I avoid
trafficking in it so that Synge won't be rolling in his grave?
But I never got around to writing any of that because it
seemed like really I should really be spending every waking moment just
trying to write a few songs so that the actors would have something to
perform for the workshop.
Today
the obvious topic would be plans and goals for the year to come, and
possibly some reflection on the year past. And I want to get
into that, but right now this is looking like a good length for a post.
So I'll leave it at that. I feel rusty.
I will remember how to write these. I will talk
about things that matter. I will recover from the flu and I
will get my voice back.
Musings Past
