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Persistence
Mar. 6th, 2022 11:47 amDecades ago in the smoky end room of a trailer, we would get together and play. Some of the playing was musical. We even recorded a few songs and a couple of what we thought at the time were funny stories set to music. At the time, the recording technology for teenage garage bands was fairly primitive, using cassettes as 4-track tapes. The sound was not great in the first place. The recordings didn't make it better.
The best singer among us aimed to be consistent about songwriting. At one point, he said he was going to write a song a day. He probably did that for a while. He was already married and had a wife, child, and trailer. He had a book by John Lennon next to the toilet. The toilet was probably the right place for it. He ended up working in the kitchen at the prison.
There were animosities hidden in the group that did not become common knowledge until much later. There was a day one of the older brothers came over and the guitarist almost had to leave in embarrassment. There were drunken near fights. None of this prevented persistence in folly, but no one became wise.
The participants all probably worried most about the lack of sex. They worried less about the weakness of the rock 'n' roll. There was an inordinate concern with the lack of drugs. When their wasn't a lack, the rock 'n' roll was even weaker than usual.
Needless to say, those involved were not persistent over the long term. Probably everyone went on playing and listening to music, having a special affinity for music in one way or another. But they didn't go on playing together. Only one went on with music at the center of life, and that player has created music regularly but haphazardly over the years. Others have created from time to time, but less regularly.
Rock 'n' roll itself looks particularly silly later on in life, but you must start somewhere. The test is not to get started, but to persist in spite of the obstacles, and to keep approaching each obstacle calmly with fresh attention. Sometimes the limitations seem severe enough to preclude any hope of achievement. Maybe it's possible to continue diligently without hope.
The best singer among us aimed to be consistent about songwriting. At one point, he said he was going to write a song a day. He probably did that for a while. He was already married and had a wife, child, and trailer. He had a book by John Lennon next to the toilet. The toilet was probably the right place for it. He ended up working in the kitchen at the prison.
There were animosities hidden in the group that did not become common knowledge until much later. There was a day one of the older brothers came over and the guitarist almost had to leave in embarrassment. There were drunken near fights. None of this prevented persistence in folly, but no one became wise.
The participants all probably worried most about the lack of sex. They worried less about the weakness of the rock 'n' roll. There was an inordinate concern with the lack of drugs. When their wasn't a lack, the rock 'n' roll was even weaker than usual.
Needless to say, those involved were not persistent over the long term. Probably everyone went on playing and listening to music, having a special affinity for music in one way or another. But they didn't go on playing together. Only one went on with music at the center of life, and that player has created music regularly but haphazardly over the years. Others have created from time to time, but less regularly.
Rock 'n' roll itself looks particularly silly later on in life, but you must start somewhere. The test is not to get started, but to persist in spite of the obstacles, and to keep approaching each obstacle calmly with fresh attention. Sometimes the limitations seem severe enough to preclude any hope of achievement. Maybe it's possible to continue diligently without hope.
