Deliberate Love

There is the love that is simply germane to existence: The love of a parent, the love for a parent. There is the love that simply occurs: Love at first sight, love at first touch. And then there is 'deliberate love': The kind of love that owes its existence to another source, but is fostered and cared for by the attentive mind. A mind that understands that perception always outpaces reality: The facts on the ground do not change nearly as fast as our binary minds would have us believe. A mind that understands that a hopeful heart must be given hope, an unsure mind must be given assurance, and a longing soul must be consoled with love. A mind that draws from the mysterious source that creates love, to keep it alive in less mysterious ways. It is very much like the mystery of life within us. We are walking proof of the magic in this universe. When we die, the magic runs out of us. To where, we do not know. But a skilled doctor does not contemplate this mystery. He intubates, he resuscitates, he injects life, he rejects death, and 5 minutes after the magic has seemingly run out of the patient, the magic is restored, and the walking mystery of the universe walks out of the ER and into the arms of a love that started out as occurrence, then turned into a love of existence, and was kept alive for a lifetime by the attentive mind. If there is anything to pay attention to in this world, pay attention to the ones you love. That is the only accomplishment that endures. It is the only magic we take with us.

Vocal No Fly Zones

No matter what kind of singer you are – professional, amateur, car, shower – you probably like to sing your favorite tunes, and said tunes are likely sung by someone with a much different (not necessarily better) voice than your own. Unless you are a professional singer that has learned to occupy his or her own vocal space, you have probably developed a ‘system of modulation’ to approximate the tone and timbre of your favorite singers, which probably sounds pretty good to you in the car or the shower, but you might notice that it does not sound so good on recordings or via amplification (or maybe it does, if you are one of the lucky few). Why is that? The first reason is what I call ‘hearmagination’: Your brain mixing up what comes in through the ears with what exists in the mind, blending together what is real with what is imagined, resulting in a pretty good sound that, in fact, may not be so good. This is immediately revealed in recordings, with the caveat that some recording devices make you sound much worse than you actually do, so take this with a grain of salt. The second reason is what I call, quite simply, ‘encroachment’, for lack of a better, contrived term: When someone modulates their voice to the point where they remove the very position and space required to make the best of THEIR voice, because they are trying to emulate SOMEONE ELSE’s voice. Most of the time, in an effort to sing in a higher key, they end up ‘raising’ everything, and, in essence, occupying what I call ‘vocal no fly zones’ – the space in one’s anatomy that must remain free of obstacles in order to facilitate the best sound possible. The only way to combat this, in my opinion, is to STOP singing along and START singing alone. Of course, learning to sing with YOUR voice requires one to accept the sound as it is, and then improve upon it in a way that maintains alignment – i.e. make it better, but do not modulate it. There are all kinds of ways to do this – e.g. shouting ‘hey’ in different keys offers a good clue for ones natural position and space – but, the main point of this post is the analogy this offers for life in general: (1) don’t confuse reality with what you imagine, (2) don’t modulate and emulate in lieu of being you, (3) be comfortable with who you are, and work to improve yourself in ways that make YOU a BETTER YOU, not a DIFFERENT YOU. This is one of the greatest self-taught lessons you will ever give and receive, with a few hints here and there from other people, but just barely enough to scratch the surface. You can always pay someone to teach you how to sing better, but the endeavor to live better is patently a self-funded learning endeavor ;-) 

Airplane Origami

Today I showed a woman in the airplane seat next to me how to fold an origami crane out of square paper, and an origami heart out of a dollar bill, after which time she proceeded to make 5 more cranes and 7 more hearts, tapping me on the shoulder every once in a while when she got stumped. Upon seeing the glut of crafts on her fold-out tray, I did the only thing I could think of: I made her an origami box to put it all in, to which she nearly burst into flames with joyful surprise. It's funny what a little paper and a bit of skill can do.

Beautiful

What is beautiful? A man sees a woman and, without knowing anything about her, feels a pang in his heart. An inner city child born and raised on concrete climbs up a mountain pass that looks over a valley, and feels the uplifting joy of being alive on this planet. A midwestern mother looks upon her baby girl, who only lived for a few hours, and lays perfectly still in a world of sound and fury. A husband kisses his wife goodbye after 50 years, feeling, for the first time, alone in this world. It is all beautiful, whether it builds you up or tears you apart.