Is it just me, or do we all get dumber as we get older?
I’ve been listening to some of the songs I wrote long ago. These were songs from my college and high school days, or even earlier. I feel like I was a better songwriter back then. I could weave a metaphor into an intricate chord structure and “BANG” a beautiful song is born. That’s the way it seems to me, these days, as I try to write a song befitting those that have come before.
How did I do that before? Oh yeah… I remember.
I must have scrapped four or five songs before that one, brilliant gem made its appearance. I wrote lines and lines of crap, over and over again before I found what my heart really wanted to say. I’ve given up on a song months before realizing that I could combine it with another song I gave up on the year before to create melodious life.
I guess, in some ways, we do get a little dumber as we get older – as worldly knowledge takes the place of inherent wisdom. I think, to be honest with you and myself, we just tend to become forgetful. My problem is that I have so many songs from so long ago and even a good number from now. When I sit down to write a song, when that feeling strikes me, I want to pour it all out onto the page and into the universe like a deluge of thought and emotion. I get frustrated when it doesn’t happen, as I’m sure we all do for it’s not so much that we can’t write but that we have forgotten that it takes time to create.
Depending on your personal outlook or belief, the Earth herself was created in six days or over a period of millions of years. Either way, it took time. Nothing is instantaneous in the process of creation. This isn’t magic. Even magic needs prep time.
The hardest thing for me to do is walk away. (If only you knew my relationship history… I digress.) Sometimes, in those moment when the flow of your creative stream seems diverted or blocked, the best thing you can do is walk away. I have found that sitting with it and trying to crash through the wall might just make things worse. Walk away. Think on it or throw it out of your head until later but don’t frustrate yourself more than is necessary. There is no instant gratification in the creative world.
I really needed to tell myself that. I will need to refresh my memory from time to time. So… maybe we’re not getting dumber. Maybe we just become forgetful. We forget the work that went into creating your work. We become impatient. Relax. Everything has its time.
I’m going to go back to some of my old ideas. It’s time to reexamine them and see what comes of looking at them with new eyes.
Another security feature protecting my creative sanity is the joy of having connected with so many wonderful musicians. I’m looking forward to collaborations with people like Jaclyn Shaw, Jason Vitelli, Katie Letts, Christina Anicet, Tracy Thorne and so any others. They’re wonderfully talented people, every one of them. Also, my new musical family is a huge help in opening my creative floodgates.
Thank you Lindsay, Jason and George. I’m so happy to get to play with you fantastic people. Maybe I’m not getting dumber after all. ~Kane~
