Today I turn 70 years old. I don’t feel any older than yesterday or last year for that matter. There seems to be cumulative effect though. I feel older than I did 10 years ago or for sure 20 years ago but when did it happen, I don’t know, but it certainly did. I’m still the same guy with the same likes, interests and sensibilities but it is a fact that I move a lot slower than I did 10 years ago, last year or even yesterday. I think I’ll pour myself a shot of tequila and reflect on this a bit.
A few weeks back Rick ran one of my past columns titled “Chasing the Groove.” It must have been a slow day at the home office for this to happen but in reading it, I found myself saying, did I write that? And dang (I don’t use dang normally in my regular speech but for this readership, I thought it more appropriate than my common language), I used to be a pretty good writer. Also rereading this piece brings up another (age related) question. Am I finding the groove as often as I once did in my bass playing? Who’s to know on either front. As usual for me the above paragraph highlights one of my recurrent themes…there are always two things, in this particular instance, writing and playing bass.
As for the writing, it seems to come and go depending on my motivation or inspiration. Some months the muse jumps right out at me and it just sort of flows. I like to think of it as riffing, as I am always one for using a “playing music” metaphor. Other months it is harder and more forced. I’m sure you readers (all three or four you) see and feel that as well. I take my first Thursday responsibilities very seriously and won’t accept that I am uninspired in any given month and always strive to give it my best shot. I’m proud of them all as you might expect…but some stand out more than others. One metric on this is for me is the number of reprints posted on the Welcome page when there are more days in a month than assigned columnists or there are missing original columns for any given day. These are pretty special to me as it is the editor-in-chief that chooses them but there are others I feel pretty good about too. The trick for me is, can I keep writing good columns for a couple of more decades. I’m pretty certain I can as long as the muse can continue to track me down… but dang (there I go again), I’ve achieved that pesky septuagenarian status today so I hope she can still find me going forward.
Did I mention bass playing? The other concern I have from rereading the “Chasing the Groove” column is, am I still finding the groove when I play. Dang, I certainly hope so. I pride myself on being a pretty good listener when I play in a group or jam and always look (listen) to “feel” the groove but recently instead of accepting my responsibility in any not so groovy situation I’ve been getting upset with the other people I’m playing with and end up going home cranky after the session, kind of like a crabby old man. You know, “ get off my lawn “ sorta thing. This is far from a healthy attitude conducive to finding any groove.
In realizing this I decided to reflect on this, as I was saying a few paragraphs ago, I poured myself a shot of tequila and broke into my now legal herbal medicine stash to achieve my own personal meditative state. This seemed to make me feel pretty good but I’m not really sure of the transformative nature of it.
What did happen is lately I decided to quit reacting to the music in jams and to start driving the groove with my playing. For sure I have a few pretty good mandolin and rhythm guitar players that help me drive the bus but I take responsibility for the pocket. Heck (I didn’t want to use dang again), there are even banjos that sometimes contribute to the groove.
That’s my story for today and I’m sticking to it. You can bet that I’ll do some more of my agave and herb meditation today with a little craft beer thrown in for good measure.
