 |
Busy,
Busy, Busy
Sometimes
life is as pleasant as a warm
spring breeze. Each day is robust,
each minute vivid, every experience
is pleasurable and fulfilling.
Those are the days filled with
golden sunlight, blooming flowers
and a peaceful stillness perfect
for reflection. Every moment
is like a slow motion movie
with soft focus. You feel good,
you feel confident, you feel
positively at one with the world.
Of
course, sometimes life moves
by you like guardrail posts
on the side of the highway
at 100 miles an hour - violent
and fast with no time for
looking anywhere but straight
ahead. Days blend in to one
another until you're not sure
if it's Tuesday or Friday,
morning or night, January
or July. Sleep becomes something
you catch any time you can
and food simply an afterthought.
This
has been my month.
Twenty-eight
shows in the last thirty-one
days, some 2000 miles racked
up on a vehicle already well
beyond it's useful life, and
the always exhilarating feeling
of waking up and having to
remember where it is that
you are. Voice mail has become
my lifeline and a laptop may
be the next necessity. The
truck has been packed to the
brim for the last month with
all of my gear, a suitcase
full of clothing, one multi-track
hard disk recorder for demoing
songs for the new record when
time permits, and the obligatory
case of diet Coke.
Here's
a sad reality: while 80 percent
of my life's stuff remains
piled high in my friend's
garage, another 15 percent
remains in my semi-permanent
residence while the remaining
5 percent travels with me
just so that I'm prepared
for wherever I end up. Prepared,
yes. Traveling light, no.
Not
that I'm complaining. In a
business where I make my money
by playing, busy is a good
thing financially. I've never
met a bill collector yet who
was sympathetic to the response,
"Well, I haven't had that
many gigs this month, so can't
I just make it up to you next
month?" Besides, did I mention
that the truck is already
well beyond it's life expectancy?
Truth
be told, if I wasn't busy
playing, I would be doing
one of the multitude of other
projects that are, at least
temporarily, on the backburner.
I set myself a goal in college
to live a creative life and
my days are consistently busy.
Whether it's music, this column,
screenplays, websites or any
other medium that fascinates
me, I just love creating things
and then trying to make them
have a life of their own.
Usually I'm juggling three
or four separate things, working
a few hours on one, then a
few hours on another. And
self-employment means that
there are no set days off,
and the work day can extend
well into the night if I'm
motivated to keep going. Perhaps
it's the age old quest for
immortality that drives me,
perhaps it's just what I am.
If nothing else, it keeps
me from getting bored.
Someone
recently suggested that perhaps
I should get in a corporate
job and use my diverse talents
to make some real money for
a change and lose the endless
work week. And while the lure
of huge sums of money, a new
SUV and a house in the suburbs
is appealing, I kept wondering
where I was going to find
a corporation looking to pay
said large sums of money for
a musician/writer/web designer/idea
guy with dreadlocks and permanent
5 day growth. Not to mention
that my resume (hypothetical
here - haven't had one in
years) would list 5 years
as a professional musician
with no other job, no boss,
and no references. That might
shake up the folks in human
resources.
I
came to conclude that as long
as I make enough to meet my
basic needs, I really do have
the best job for me. Every
day of my life is filled with
passion, and I love digging
in and working hard on a project.
And although sometimes it
keeps me insanely busy, there
really isn't anything else
I'd rather be doing.
Now
excuse me while I get back
to recording demos of these
songs for the new album.
This
column © 2000 Lee Totten
|
