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The Meaning of Life

Original Music Release A Day #16 ~ The Meaning of Life

Part of the Small Craft Advisory collection of spoken word pieces

This piece has an interesting history ~ I distinctly remember writing the words as follow up from a particularly profound meditation, but I have absolutely no memory at all of playing and recording the music and then setting the words down as well into their sonic bed.  

One of the themes that runs through many of these spoken word pieces is chosen nobility, or walking one’s path in life as upright and meaningfully as possible.  By upright I don’t mean being straight and narrow, no, life is too short for that.  I mean holding one’s head high and being able to look one another in the eye, taking responsibility for one’s self, and taking the time to appreciate and create beauty whenever possible.  We can totally be noble and full of shenanigans, no worries there.

The Meaning of Life is offered as a meditation in the creation of meaning within one’s life, and a reminder of all the places where we encounter it.  In this particular moment in time when we are all slowing down and taking stock of what’s important and what isn’t, it is my hope that we emerge from this time more aligned with our deeper selves and truly connected with friends and family.

To the Video!

https://youtu.be/ev-B_gBXWCY

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Our Story…

Release A Day #1

Our Story is the poem that sparked my explorations with spoken word expression set to music and started this whole Small Craft Advisory trajectory.  It’s birth in 2016 is a remarkable example of a piece of creativity “coming through” as it was hand-written in one sitting with over three pages and there are no cross-outs. It just exploded into being in one fell swoosh, and my wife laughs about this because I had been telling her for at least a month prior to writing Our Story that I was feeling pent up and felt that I needed to be doing “something” in relation to global issues though I had no idea what.  

Since then I’ve changed the phrasing of only one line as I feel it delivers better, and I still marvel at the process that brought this thing through.  I shot the video in 2017, and though I was generally aware of climate issues, I wasn’t aware yet of the full extent of the problem and my general enthusiasm for the human story and our possible futures was still pretty high at the time.  You can see that enthusiasm especially at the end with my “and I can’t wait to see what we’ll write next…” conclusion to the piece.  I suspect if I was writing this now it would have a much different tone.  However I am choosing to keep it intact as it was written because even though courage has rapidly replaced hope as the operative M.O. for woke folk, I do believe that the sheer amount of variables, especially regarding potential human responses, keeps an extremely cautious optimism in play though it is certainly not dominant.  

Regardless, thinking about our story as a common thread binding humanity has a lot of power to it, and in this day and age the more connections we recognize and nurture between individuals, communities, and species, the greater the odds that we will have something of a fighting chance to not go down with the ship.  

If this resonates anything with you, please share, send the link to friends and family, tweet it, whatever. I just love the conversation that this piece sparks and hope you explore it too.  

If you’ve been moved by your visit, please consider signing up for the occasional newsletter that features new releases, inspirations, and other Tales from the Shadow Gallery…


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