a little looking back

As '010 blizzards to an end, a time for reflection? Maybe. Absolutely when the year is as unprecedented as this one. I've been pinching myself and having flashes of memory of the past year, it was a good one . . . and for someone who spent eight months of the year on unemployment to be able to say that . . . well that's something. I guess that's what happens when your identity isn't wrapped up in a job. Jobs for me have always been a means to an end . . . a way of paying the bills while the real important work can get done. Now, I realize that it may sound precious to think of my artistic pursuits as 'important', but they are to me. In fact, when all is said and done and I'm breathing my last, guess what I'll look back on as accomplishments, here's a hint, it won't be selling anything to anybody . . . it'll be whatever I leave behind that I've created. And I don't look on it as failure if I don't ever make a ton of money at it . . . the only failure is not to do it . . . not to try. The only failure is to sit around living passively wishing you could do something. Well guess what? You can!

I sure did. I took the leap into the unknown, pulling up stakes and leaving family and friends behind . . . and it was hard . . . but it was the right thing to do. And I've never regretted doing it. Yes it's hard with aging parents 500 miles away, but we all live our own lives and make our own choices . . .

At any rate, '010 was a great year in very many ways and I'm looking for '011 to be wonderful as well. More from Old Hickory perhaps, another solo performance maybe. My new two hander . . . and the new job, which I think will prove to be lucrative. It's nice to be closer to sixty than fifty and still have the fire and excitement about what's happening next. I hope I never lose that, and the best I could wish for anyone who reads this is that you never lose it either . . . and if you have . . . then find something to rekindle it.