You do or you don’t, you don’t “try.”
It is or it isn’t, there’s no “perhaps.”
Perhaps today, I’ll try to do.
Do v. Try
Month: August 2025
Listen to this
I rearranged the living room over the weekend, splitting it into sections — the kitchen and dining area are unchanged, but now I have a TV nook, an area for conversation and noodling with my guitars, and most important my stereo set relocated to right in front of the love seat.
It’s been a long time since my turntable held a prominent place in the main room; it was relegated to my office for 30 years or so. I forgot how great music sounds when it holds one of the major spots in the house.
I’ve reintroduced myself to Judee Sill’s magical first LP and First Aid Kit’s nifty Palomino album. Last night while typing this little blurb for you, I listened to Kenton in Hi-Fi, a nifty jazz set that Stan Kenton recorded to help Capitol Records show off the new 33 1/3 rpm technology back in the day, and a Duke Ellington album on Columbia.
In my growing years Dad’s stereo system held a prominent place in the living room, with big ol’ speakers on either side of the fireplace. We could count on waking up Saturday mornings to Dad blasting Benny Goodman or some other big band or jazz album making full use of those big ol’ speakers.
My parents did not discourage us from spending our hard-earned cash on our own musical explorations, and I have fond memories of Christmases in the late 1960s when there could be a dozen or so flat, 12-inch-by-12-inch presents waiting under the tree to be distributed among the three brothers.
I remember many a time my mind was expanded when a friend placed a platter on the turntable and said, “Listen to this,” or I was thrilled by the delighted look on a friend’s face when I introduced them to something special I had found.
Music has become a commercial product most often found tinkling along in the background while we shop for groceries or pump gas. When a person has a chance to sit down and listen, putting the music in the foreground, they tap into a whole new way of communicating.
It’s hard to concentrate on discord and strife while musicians are literally creating harmonies before your very ears. “Musick has charms to soothe the savage breast,” wrote William Congreve three centuries ago, and anyone who has ever spent time listening knows how true that is.
The other day I said the secret to achieving world peace is to embed at least one golden retriever in every home. The secret to achieving inner peace is to listen to good music while the golden retriever is resting by your side.
Two friends diverged in the woods
(From the archives, Aug. 17, 2017)
“I can’t.”
The other man stopped short and whipped around.
“You WHAT?”
The first speaker swallowed and considered whether to repeat himself.
“I can’t,” he said finally. “This is impossible.”
The other man’s face turned red, and the first one braced himself for an onslaught, either emotional or physical. He winced.
But instead, the other man sighed.
“OK,” he said. “You stay here. I’ll go on.”
“Bring me something, would you? I –”
“I’m not coming back.”
“But –”
“Here’s the deal,” the other man said. “We’re going this way. It’s tough. Nobody said it would be easy, but you know what’s waiting out there. Here, this place, is where we were – we didn’t want to be here anymore. So here we go, or, I guess, here I go. You can stay here, but I’m not coming back this way again.”
“What will I do without you?”
The other man smiled.
“Anything you want. That’s the beauty of it,” he said. “Maybe I’ll see you over there someday.”
“Maybe you will. See you then.”
That was the last time either ever saw of each other. They remembered that day differently – one as the day he lost a friend, one as the last time he ever let himself say, “I can’t.”