RockOm

By Trevor Harden, Trevor@RockOm.net

Since forming in 1985 as a band of middle school students, the rock quartet known as Live has grown to become one of the most popular and enduring alternative rock acts of the past two decades. They gained massive mainstream success with their sophomore breakthrough album Throwing Copper in 1994 and have since gone on to sell more than 20 million CDs worldwide.

Live frontman Eddie Kowalczyk is currently on an acoustic tour called Open Wings, Broken Strings with Leigh Nash of Sixpence None The Richer and Art Alexakis of Everclear. He is also working on a rocking new solo album to be released in spring of 2010 (details and mailing list at eddieklive.com).

Eddie sat down with RockOm's Trevor Harden to discuss his spiritual journey, rediscovering the Bible, the power of performing acoustically and more...

Trevor: Since Live's first album, Mental Jewelry, you've always allowed depth and spiritual truth into your lyrics. That album came out when you guys were very young so was there a catalyst that started you down that spiritual path? Can you speak about where that longing for something deeper came from?

Ed: Sure. I was baptized and confirmed Roman Catholic but never really got into it much beyond the routine of occasional church going and the formalities of the religion, never really digging that deeply into it as a child. Then as a teenager, I had a natural tendency to dig a little deeper than what was handed to me as a kid, in terms of spirituality and religion. When I was about 16 or 17 in high school I noticed that I was really interested in meditation and seeking Truth and a deeper meaning to my existence. I ended up wandering into a metaphysical bookstore that was near where I lived one day and saw a book by J. Krishnamurti called You Are the World; I bought it on a whim. It ended up being a book about questioning conditioning. He put everything into question in terms of what we accept as true or real and why we do so. It was maybe the first time I did that - to look at the ideas and beliefs I held about God and Truth and ask myself if they were accurate and what I was getting from it.

So that started my questioning which then led into years of meditating and reading. I've always been an avid reader of scripture and philosophy and never went to college so that was kind of my education. In the mid-1990's I met Ken Wilber and became really good friends with him and read his book called A Brief History of Everything which was a major watershed opening of my mind. Then about four or five years ago I did something called the Big Mind project with a man named Genpo Roche, a Zen master who developed a piercing kind of Zen questioning process. Since then I've come full circle by re-investigating the Bible from a metaphysical point of view - reinterpreting scripture in a way that relates to consciousness. That has been the main focus of my life for the last four years. It's definitely not a type of Christianity that people would recognize as typical or dogmatic; it's about the furthest you could be from fundamentalism but nonetheless Christian in nature. I'm really discovering the Bible for the first time in terms of unlocking its potential to teach us about reality.

Alongside all of that, it's music all the time. Music and songwriting is an extension of that search and has given me a lot to think about. It's been a fount of inspiration for me throughout the years and people seem to dig it.

Trevor: What are you finding in the life and teachings of Jesus that you weren't finding elsewhere or that you're finding unique?

Ed: It's unique in it's power, unique in it's breadth of influence. But you have to get away from looking at it as just a moral code and dig deeper into the language of the Bible and I'm interpreting it as it relates to consciousness itself or being itself. One of the simple ways that I see the power in it is every time the Bible says God or Lord or Christ is to relate that directly to consciousness itself, which is ever present and intermingling with your own being at a very deep level. So that unlocks an interest in prayer and meditation that was there but is now even more driven to a deeper place, understanding that as we touch that deep level that our life becomes the fruitage of that. We're happier, our relationships become more harmonious... "you shall know them by their fruits" stuff starts to happen. There's an extra sparkle in my eye and a smile that wasn't there for a while by ucovering that because of the depth of this prayer and practicing going to that place where we all become one. There's a very powerful silence there and it really reveals a lot.

As a musician and artist, you can't really ask for more than that. I come out of these periods with incredible inspiration and want to sing about it. Being able to go full circle and pick up the Bible again has been very powerful for me because it was a book that I really just didn't understand in a way that meant much to me for years. It's a sort of a coming home, but in my own way. It has been really, really exciting and powerful.

Trevor: You're currently offering the free download of your song "Forever" on eddieklive.com. It's a beautiful acoustic version of the song with the great line, "The darker the night, the brighter the dawn." Can you tell us a little about your inspiration for this song?

Ed: Again, coming from rediscovering the Bible and words like faith, that particular lyric is trying to express that when we see our ideal - the best case scenario, the most loving scenario, the fullest life, God or Truth - to keep our attention there in spite of what is appearing as an obstacle or limitation. As you keep the faith and keep your attention on that ideal and get more and more stronger doing that you find that the negativity leaves. You discover you've moved past the limitations and closer to the ideal in ways that are beyond imagination. Everyone has experienced that but this was just putting it into a context that is hopefully inspirational to people. It's something that has had an incredible impact on my life.

Trevor: All musicians talk about that mystical thing that happens in a live setting where there's a unity and connection you have with the audience. I'm sure it happens at both the loud rock concerts with the band as well as in the quiet, acoustic solo performances that you're currently doing. Can you talk about how the texture of that is different in both of those settings?

Ed: It's really different. Look, I love to rock. I've been in a great band for years and love to turn up the amps and have all the lights going and the big PA. But there's a part of you that sits by yourself in a room and writes a song that doesn't get to be on stage then. He has to recoil back into a little place of being there, but not really. Stripping it down and making it an acoustic, intimate setting really allows that guy to come forward. I had really kind of missed him. You obviously have that when you start out, when the crowds are smaller, but as the band gets bigger and your art succeeds, it becomes a persona that is designed to fill these big spaces. With this "Open Wings, Broken Strings" tour, the idea was to strip that down and put artists on the bill that were also ready for those types of things in their music. There's a fullness about the show that everyone is sharing in and the crowds are just loving it. A lot of them have said to me, "I never knew it could rock that much or be that compelling." That trips me out because that's where the music comes from, but I guess yeah, if you've never seen me acoustic you wouldn't know. This is just another view and it's really neat.

Trevor: In that setting you can talk about the meaning behind the songs and share the background a little bit. Are there any of your songs that you're particularly enjoying "clearing the air" about? Is there any song that you really enjoy telling the real story and meaning behind because it has maybe been misunderstood in the past or is perhaps a bit cryptic?

Ed: You know, I keep them that way a lot. I actually just did an introduction to "Lightening Crashes" the other night and said if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me what this song meant, I'd have a lot more dollars. I basically stepped off it again by saying that I have a feeling about what it means but people have received such different impressions about that song in lots of good ways that I don't want to influence that. I've said it's about reincarnation for me at periods of time in my life but I still tend to back away from that because there's something about the openness of it - letting it be interpreted in the way people receive it - that is really powerful.

www.eddieklive.com

By Margaret M. Treadwell

Being who you are won’t always please your parents. The American film classic St. Louis Blues depicts musician W.C. Handy (1873-1958, pictured) as a pioneer, betraying his minister father who believed “there are only two kinds of music, the Devil’s and the Lord’s.” In marrying hymns and gospel music to blues and jazz, Handy became a legend known as The Father of the Blues. His memory has been honored annually for the past 28 years at the WC Handy Music Festival in his northwest Alabama birthplace.

Many musicians who have played for years at the festival describe themselves as feeling like they rejoin their family each summer. Indeed, their exquisite improvisations sound like they never cease practicing together, yet in the community of this spirited festival each shines forth their special talent as an individual artist. Like Handy, many had an overriding desire to make music as if there really was no choice, no matter how much their fathers discouraged their career decision.

“What part does your spirit play in your music and how does your music play on your spirit?” I asked seven male musicians who agreed to talk with me in a roundtable discussion for an hour between gigs. Their responses debunked the myth that “men are out of touch with their emotions,” added a new dimension to my week, and gave me some life lessons to share.

Drums: “Music is a musician’s whole life. It’s what you are rather than what you do. Spirit is everything. When I play, I open up my whole self to let it out. Communication is so important; you can’t do the music without relating to other musicians like an unspoken promise where you want to express yourself but encourage others to do the same – opening to possibilities of sharing everything we are. I’m hesitant to say that I’m channeling the music, but I think that selflessness happens to all of us at points during improvisation. We compose, the music is out there, and then the moment is gone which makes it all the more precious. Music is like life.”

Keyboard 1: “Yes, and being perfect ruins it. You have to take risks or the music wouldn’t be real. I think of it as the “Zen style” of playing which can get me into the zone – that’s the spiritual part of it. The worst thing I can do is to think too much about it.”

Vibes: “Swing is spirit and swing is everything. It gives back, lifts me up and always is there when I need it. There is mystery in the improvisation. It’s not about the instrument you play but about the humanity in the person.”

Trumpet: “My wife is an artist; we are speaking the same language in different mediums which is spiritual for me. It doesn’t really matter what your instrument is although trumpet – a wind instrument – gives me a chance to have a true voice, which started in 6th grade. Paradoxically, I’m not a trumpet soloist; I must trust and be with others to see where they’re going in community.”

Sax: “I’m a creative writer and the principles are the same as in art and music – contrast, design, color in the broader sense, and organization. To stay the course in a different professional way of life requires faith and tapping into the creative spirit every day. Music is a religion with a different language. Music is spirit and must be followed; spirit follows spirit.”

Trombone: “The spirituality of music is like group therapy for me. I couldn’t play when I had cancer, and I thought I would go crazy. Music keeps me on course.”

Bass: “I’ve played music as long as I can remember, and it gives me a direction even though I don’t think of myself as a man with goals. I’m spontaneously composing when soloing; when the others join me there’s a certain vocabulary we all use with phrases we know but never said before in the same way.”

Later I spoke with two other keyboardists. One said, “My music has started to flow through me from a secret place only God knows. It feels like I have come “home” to a place all of us look for. I do much of my work in prisons, churches and other places I can talk/sing about spiritual concerns. It’s dangerous if God is only in our heads; He starts to sound an awful lot like us.”

The second reflected, “Music will exalt anything to which it is attached – God, family, sex, hamburgers. It is a spiritual force second only to love. King David made it a requirement that the 4,000 Pharisees he dispatched to spread the word of God’s kingdom had to be musicians largely because music transcends language and speaks directly to the spirit.” As St. Augustine is credited with saying: ‘He who sings prays twice.’”

Margaret M. (“Peggy”) Treadwell, LCSW -C is a family, individual and couples therapist in private practice. She has been active in the fields of education and counseling for thirty-five years. Following a long association with Rabbi Edwin H. Friedman, during which she served on his faculty, she co-edited and helped posthumously publish his book, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. She may be contacted at PeggyMcDT@gmail.com.

This article was originally published at EpiscopalCafe.com

W. C. Handy photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1941 July 17

RockOm Round-up is a quick glance at what's going on around the world in the areas of music and spirituality...

• Leonard Cohen's Temple of Doom - "Yes, [musician Leonard] Cohen has just reached the pinnacle of stardom as a senior citizen who is in the midst of a vast world tour. It almost didn't happen, because the tower of song retired in his 60s to become a Buddhist monk. 'Religion is my favourite hobby,' he told Elena Comelli. 'It's deep and voluptuous -- a pure delight. Nothing is comparable to the delight you get from this activity. Apart, obviously, from courting. If you are a young man, that is the more amusing activity.'" (bookslut.com)
• Altz is Gott for Jewish rapper Eprhyme - "Here's what it's not about: cute Yiddish puns, bar mitzvah kitsch, Manischewitz cocktails, or the novelty of a Jewish 'insert unexpected form' (rap, reggae, whatever) star. Here's what it does seem to be about: post-sacred-cow radical pluralism, pantheism, religious consciousness fused with social action, and an uncompromising and unimpressed blend of urban forms and neo-Hasidic spirituality." (haaretz.com)
• Call of the Valley - Pandit Shivkumar Sharma says, "Indian classical music has a spiritual connect. Exploring ideas musically gives me a high. For example, my album ‘Zen’ owes itself to my reading of Osho’s philosophy..." (hindu.com)
• Music Speaks Louder Than Words - "Music is simply that which invites us to remember we are never separate or alone and that we have far more in common with our earth family than we have differences." (toacorn.com)

By Roger Hatfield

I have to hurry. I don’t want to lose this amazing feeling without expressing it. My trip to the Toledo Museum of Art today was wonderful. While I am not a big fan of the city, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the museum’s exhibits. Ah, the enterprises of Man. We saw jewelry that was created as long before Jesus was born as it now is after - that is to say, 2300 BC. It was gorgeous!

After a break in the cafeteria we headed out to the sculpture gardens and subsequently across the street to the Glass Museum. After viewing some beautiful glass art creations, we went and sat down in the area where a glassblowing exhibit was occurring. That is not really fair; there was serious glass blowing occurring by a team of five artists. Though we were watching, they were not doing it for our benefit. It was an incredible dance - turning, cutting, into the kiln, out of the kiln, cutting and torching, three torches at a time. I have seen this on TV but I never felt the heat and the intensity of the people in this spontaneous improvisation. Into the kiln, out of the kiln, torches blazing, cutting and shaping. Very few instructions were given; it was a collective consciousness that simply knew what to do. I remembered the feeling from having been engaged in a musical improvisation with other musicians. I can remember being surprised by the eruption of applause from the audience when the trance was broke and the song ended.

Now from across the workspace came a young woman with a glass bowl rotating slowly on the end of her long blowing rod. “Ready?” “Ready, now!” The bowl was joined to the double-stemmed object of their torches and their attention. Turning, heating, back into the kiln and out again. Again she returns, this time with a smaller glob of ruby red glass that was applied to the top of the rotating bowl, some sort of rudimentary lip I thought. What looked like a large compass was brought into play and the opening of the now-attached bowl was spread open. Back into the kiln - spin, spin, spin. One of the glass tentacles began to twist just slightly and the entire piece elongated, now looking to be at least four feet tall. Cindy and I sat there with our mouths agape. I said it was like a dance; maybe there is a better analogy. It was like a jazz quintet launched on a high-energy quest, all instruments improvising spontaneously, free but connected.

Another snip. All three torches were burning now, engulfing the piece in flame as it went back into the white-hot kiln, which was so hot that the doors had to be opened by long metal rods with hooks on the end.

They opened the doors and brought up the shield as the piece was slid into the glowing opening, still being rotated, the flames firing from the opening of that benevolent hell.

CRACK!

NO!

The team quickly pulled it out, torched it, and brought it back to the rotating stand to keep it hot. They stretched it. But it was too late. It was gone. The dream was dead. Leonard, the leader of this jam session walked away as the others extinguished their flames. “Shut the doors,” said Leonard. He walked in our direction.

Cindy and I looked at each other then back at Leonard. The pain on his face was astonishing. I saw it, I felt it, and tears came to my eyes. Brows were mopped and shoulders were shrugged. Disappointment was everywhere, but it was obvious that they had all been here before. Leonard reappeared. They stood in a little group and dissected what had just happened. Zen acceptance. It is how they get better. It speaks to the impermanence of all matter.

Today I saw the pain of dying dreams and the sweetness that is earned only by failing so many times. No time to mourn; all we have, and all we ever have, is right now. If there is a moral, it is this: Keep creating, keep playing, keep dancing, keep doing what ever art you do, even, and especially, when the glass breaks.

Please visit my music website www.nowbehere.com

By Roger Hatfield

Stop now, quiet your mind and anticipate the sound. Regard your instrument with respect and may I say, love? Hold it in your hands, feel its weight, smell its scent, experience its being and texture, your familiar friend. If Zen is the sound of one hand clapping, then how much greater of an event is about to take place? Fill your heart with the expectation of the first note, the last note, the only note. Allow your heart to be surprised by this attack of sound, as if by the appearance of a long lost love. Listen as it fills the air, stay with it as it dissolves until nothing is left but the air it occupied. Feel your heart’s hunger for the sound to return.

Now. Play. Not with your mind, but return your hands, your ears, your creative voice to the divine from whom they are on loan. There is a song to sing, and it is worth hearing. It is good to allow your being to fill up with joy, love, and light. Watch and listen, be a mind-full witness to this miracle. And when the song is finished, linger for a moment, breathing in the air that was blessed by this heavenly thing called music.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Visit Roger's music website at www.nowbehere.com

''It's hard to describe, because on one hand you want your solo to be spontaneous. On the other hand, I feel a good guitar solo should be somewhat of a composition in itself. So, you sort of toggle back and forth between the concept of trying to initiate flow and composing. I think it's a combination of both." [Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, Steely Dan / Doobie Brothers]

How do you feel about this quote as a life metaphor? Is the full, happy and successful life about "creating yourself" (composition)? Is it more of an improvisation - playing off other people's "riffs," ducking and dodging melodies and reacting to the chord progressions that are supporting you?

Or - as Jeff's quote suggests - a balance, a combination of both? It sounds like an obvious answer, but there are definitely proponents of both sides.

Success coach Jack Canfield encourages people to take "100% responsibility for their own lives" (100% composition). Here you believe that everything that happens to you is of your own making. You act as if you are in no way a victim to outside circumstances and have no one to blame for your good or bad circumstances other than yourself.

Others, including some Zen Buddhists, would encourage a fully spontaneous and improvisational approach. Alan Watts, for example, spoke consistently about how you can't control your own life, no matter how much you try. The way to live then is to be open and accepting of what Life brings you and trust that you're part of a much bigger picture - all the while knowing that "you" have nothing to do with how it got that way.

Composition? Improvisation? Or balance? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

RockOm Round-up is a quick glance at what's going on around the world in the areas of music and spirituality...

• The spiritual lessons of Michael Jackson's life - Even though we're all getting a little weary of all the MJ news, here's a great reflection on the spiritual lessons one can garner from Jackson's legacy. (American Chronicle)
• Bargainin' for Interpretation - In a new book entitled Bargainin' for Salvation: Bob Dylan, A Zen Master?, a Florida International University professor "interprets the oeuvre of Dylan's career through a Zen Buddhist perspective and includes but digs much, much deeper than Dylan's obvious Buddhist influences." (Examiner.com)
• Clippers: LaPorta's spirituality keeps him grounded - When pro baseball player Matt LaPorta steps up to the batter's box, the song that begins blaring is Christian worship artist Lincoln Brewster's song "Everlasting God." (Dispatch.com)
• Multi-Platinum Selling Group 'Diamond Rio' Mark Christian Music Debut - "After two decades of making music, acclaimed six time vocal group of the year and GRAMMY® nominated Diamond Rio are unveiling their 11th album and first full length Christian record The Reason on Word Records on Sept. 22." (christiannewswire.com)
• Wanderlust Festival: Sounds like a stretch - "This month’s Wanderlust Festival fuses yoga and music in a three-day spectacle of physical and artistic hedonism that will kick your asanas and soothe your eardrums." (newsreview.com)

I see my music as my ‘spiritual path’. Both spirituality and music are central to my life. It’s taken me quite a while to realize that this is what it’s about for me. I’ve been a Buddhist for many years and have tried a number of different ways to practice as sincerely as I can, and in the end, it seems to me that this is my path. I once saw a video of Joe Satriani playing guitar (and I really am not into heavy metal) and I had an insight experience similar to what I might get on meditation retreat. And I realized how music really is a way in for people like me.

In Buddhist circles there’s quite a bit of debate as to how Buddhism can be practiced most effectively in the West – ie what is ‘Western Buddhism’? After all, it’s still only a few decades old here. It is so new that the first Western masters are still alive. Historically, Buddhism has transformed massively whenever it has arrived in a new culture. It transforms the culture, and the culture transforms it. The underlying message is still the same, but the way it expresses itself varies massively. Tibetan Buddhism is very different from Zen, which is in turn very different from the Theravadin Buddhism of Sri Lanka. So what is Western Buddhism?

The West encourages alienation from the self. Either we are completely disembodied and hypnotized by mass media until we don’t really exist as individuals at all, or we conceive of ourselves as objects - a product to be marketed. The market is more real and more significant than we are. We dress ourselves in ways that appeal to the niche we have decided to target, we learn the lingo, take up the hobbies, come up with catchy strap lines and hang out in the right places. And when ‘Who We Really Are’ protests, showing itself up as various neuroses, we drown it out with more TV, more shopping, more alcohol, more drugs, more therapy, more medication. The hollowness has been there for so long that we think it is normal. We think that is who we are! We have lost touch completely with our inherent beauty, our inherent completeness. And then we discover Buddhism and think that maybe this is a way to escape the pain, and we hear about ‘not-Self’ and think ‘yeah that makes total sense’. And thus Buddhism adds to our confusion.

It seems to me therefore, that the initial challenge for Westerners wishing to practice, is to reconnect with themselves. To heal from the alienation which is the almost inevitable result of growing up in contemporary Western society. You can’t realize the Buddhist ‘not-Self’ concept before you have realized who you are as a ‘self’. And music is excellent for this.

So music is a way for me to be connected with myself, and to communicate authentically with others. And if there is ever to be such a thing as Western Buddhist art, it will not be a standard image of a Buddha sitting in the full lotus. It will not be Buddhist mantras sung in the style of a Christian choir. It will be people who are genuine Buddhist practitioners, and genuine Western artists, expressing themselves without a conscious agenda. To the extent that they have realized the teaching, their work will be genuine Western Buddhist art. As Jack Kerouac, inventor of the practice of writing ‘spontaneous prose’ once said, ‘[if] mind is shapely, art is shapely’. That was before he rejected Buddhism, returned to his Catholic roots and drank himself to death, of course, and thus gave his own answer to my Zen koan. My Zen koan is not ‘What is the sound of one hand clapping?’, or ‘Does a dog have Buddha nature?’. It is something like ‘Your life is meaningless, beautiful, and passing. Now what?’

[This post entitled "Music and Buddhism" was written by Padma of JustMusic (www.justmusic.co.uk) - an excellent independent music label out of the UK. Check out their website to see and hear their artists and share in additional writings and news.]

Discuss this article

In RockOm's existence on the web, we've posted a number of compelling articles and blog posts that have since found their way into the inner archives. There are many new readers and users since those "early days" and so occasionally we will pull out old posts for you to read (or re-read) and meditate upon. Today's FLASHBACK is the telling of an ancient Zen story and how it relates to being open to new and different kinds of music.

One day Banzan was walking through a market. He overheard a customer say to the butcher, "Give me the best piece of meat you have." "Everything in my shop is the best," replied the butcher. "You can not find any piece of meat that is not the best." At these words, Banzan was enlightened. [Zen story]

Just as the point of this story is that every single moment is "the best," regardless of the content and perceived quality of that moment, it could be said that every song that one listens to is the "best." If we could begin to experience every piece of music we encounter with an open mind and heart, refusing to give a label such as GOOD or BAD, we could enjoy the process of experiencing it simply "as it is."

EXPERIMENT: Pull up a song that you dislike - or while listening to the radio, refrain from skipping to a new station when something disagreeable comes on.

As you listen, let down your guard. Stop resisting it and let it wash over and through you.

Try to put your mind in tune with that of the artist. Afterall, somebody believed in that song you "hate." They created it, nurtured it, recorded it and believes it is something to share with the world. See if you can align yourself with the artist's passion for this song.

Refuse your desire to label this song as bad. Listen with an open acceptance; follow it as it ebbs and flows, rises and falls. Pay attention to and subtleties in the melody, rhythm, and harmonies.

Attempt to find a deeper meaning in the lyrics. What is the artist trying to communicate? Even if it's only, "Hey baby, baby, I wanna get with you" - meditate on the deeper intentions and underlying human desires that leads someone to pen such lyrics.

By the end of doing these steps, you'll certainly have a whole new appreciation for this piece of music. There's most definitely a different quality of life depending on how closed or open one is - and so if you can take steps to be more open and accepting, you'll be released from that inner tension of turning away from things you think suck. And then "every piece of meat is the best."

RESPOND: Have you found a chance to do the experiment? Share with us your experience.

Discuss this article

''It's hard to describe, because on one hand you want your solo to be spontaneous. On the other hand, I feel a good guitar solo should be somewhat of a composition in itself. So, you sort of toggle back and forth between the concept of trying to initiate flow and composing. I think it's a combination of both." [Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, Steely Dan / Doobie Brothers]

How do you feel about this quote as a life metaphor? Is the full, happy and successful life about 'creating yourself' (composition)? Is it more of an improvisation - playing off other people's "riffs," ducking and dodging melodies and reacting to the chord progressions that are supporting you?

Or - as Jeff's quote suggests - a balance, a combination of both? It sounds like an obvious answer, but there are definitely proponents of both sides.

Success coach Jack Canfield encourages people to take "100% responsibility for their own lives" (100% composition). Here you believe that everything that happens to you is of your own making. You act as if you are in no way a victim to outside circumstances and have no one to blame for your good or bad circumstances other than yourself.

Others, including some Zen Buddhists, would encourage a fully spontaneous and improvisational approach. Alan Watts, for example, spoke consistently about how you can't control your own life, no matter how much you try. The way to live then is to be open and accepting of what Life brings you and trust that you're part of a much bigger picture - all the while knowing that "you" have nothing to do with how it got that way.

Composition? Improvisation? Or balance? Leave your thoughts in the comments.