Still me

It’s a little early for summer reruns, but the well felt a little dry today, and this reflection from a couple of years ago came up as today’s reading from See the World! So, at the risk of overselling the forthcoming book and its accompanying podcast, here’s another peek between the covers.

I know my back aches more than it used to. I know sometimes I pause in mid-sentence because I just can’t think of the right word and I know the word has come to my mind dozens if not hundreds of times before. I know I have to stop and sit more often when I am walking or doing physical work — and speaking of walking, I know I’d rather not run anymore, even if I’m in a hurry.

And yet I’m looking out at the world with the same consciousness that looked out at the world to find Spider-Man #4 in a pile of other comic books for sale in the summer of 1963. These are the same fingers and arms that held a woman for the first time in the 1970s with all the wonder and delight that can mean. I am still the young man who watched, fascinated, as stupid people hurled eggs at a stage in Oshkosh because they didn’t like what Mr. Reagan was saying about freedom and tyranny. Of course my opinions and frame of mind have changed in all these years, but it’s still me.

I look in the mirror and see the same person who looked in the mirror and saw an underweight tall drink of water, even though now I see an overweight old man with a beer belly.

All I’m trying to say is that the externals have changed and quite a few points of view have changed — although I still believe Reagan was right when he said government IS the problem — but the consciousness that powers these fingers across the page and sees and hears the world around it is still the same consciousness, even if it doesn’t see or hear as clearly as it did back in olden times.

We only get one body and one consciousness in this lifetime, and we’re stuck with them for a very long time, so it’s best we take care of them and feed them right and use them with as much wisdom as we can muster.

That song and that book

I was so eager to get off Square One with my new music that I jumped before I understood where I was going. My announcement that I was releasing a new single called “Song For My Daughter” was a case of “Fire, aim, ready.”

After I sent it out to CD Baby and announced the release, I found the distributor’s instructions that said I should pick a release date at least 2-3 weeks in the future. It seems with hundreds and thousands of singers wanting to put their work out there, they need a little lead time to get the music to all the various platforms.

Indeed, more than two weeks after my giddy announcement, only Spotify and Amazon Music had the song available as of Monday night, and Pandora has inexplicably linked it to another artist’s song with the same name. Here is a link that will be updated as other services start picking it up.

I wrote the song, literally, over about 17 years. While I have had the privilege of serving in a stepfather’s role, I’ve never fathered a child of my own, and I wrote a verse in 2007, added others later, and set it all to a melody about two years ago. Then I hemmed and hawed for more than a year before actually recording it. Longtime readers will recognize that I have occasional trouble finishing projects and following through on plans.

I guess I could second-guess my entire life, but what would be the point? As the song says, I made the choices I made, and this is the line that I cast. And maybe this particular song needed 17 years of incubation.

In other news of current projects, I uploaded the e-editions of See the World! on Monday. My new tome is now available for pre-order wherever fine print-on-demand and electronic books are sold.

As I’m reading the book a chapter a day in the oh-so-originally-named “See the World! Podcast,” I must say this one turned out rather nicely, if I say so myself. You don’t have to take my word for it, just listen to the podcast at the bottom of this page every morning, and ask your favorite independent bookseller to order a copy. Launch date is June 10.

+ + + + +

See the World! Podcast, Episode 7 — sponsored by See the World!, now available for pre-order.

May we look to tomorrow with hope

Today we pause to remember those who fought and died in America’s wars.

The best way to honor our war dead is to press for peace always.

As the hymn in one of my favorite Japanese movies goes, “May we live without destruction. May we look to tomorrow with hope. May peace and light return to us.”