A Year In My Head

It’s hard to believe a year has passed since I started writing my “Not Words Alone Column”. I appreciate all of you who have faithfully been reading the stuff that comes out of my head each week. Some would compare spending a year “in my head” to spending a year at a three-ring-circus. I guess that’s a fair comparison. I have difficulty thinking of just one thing at a time because I always have several ideas going at the same time.

Maybe I have too many interests. I’ve been a musician, an artist in multiple media and a photographer for almost 40 years. I really enjoy being creative and coming up with ideas for just about anything. I also love to communicate those ideas to others. My desire to share those ideas and thoughts with others was my impetus to begin writing in the first place. I guess that’s not too many interests. And besides, being involved in those things has given me some great opportunities and introduced me to some excellent people.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of you at some of the various events I’ve attended, or while just walking around town and crossing paths while running errands, grabbing a bite to eat or attending to some sort of business. Many of you have asked how I come up with ideas for articles, songs or works of art. You’ve probably noticed that some of our conversations have been reflected in the subject matter for some of these columns. That’s no accident. The people in my life become part of the story of my life, and thus, part of my art. You’ve become part of the stories, songs and images in my head. All the people, events and experiences in my life that have shaped me, apparently have also made me someone who looks at, and sees things very differently than most others. These articles, my songs, my paintings and drawings and my photographs are simply expressions of what I see in life.

In the 2001 movie “Kate & Leopold”, Stuart Besser (played by Live Schreiber) is a physicist and inventor who accidentally discovers a time portal on the Brooklyn Bridge. An accident lands Stuart in the hospital where he’s placed in the psych ward because he keeps going on about time travel. In a desperate attempt to be released, Stuart explains to a nurse “I’m no crazier than a dog that finds a rainbow. Dogs are colorblind – they don’t see color; just like we don’t see time. We can feel it passing, but we can’t see it; it’s just like a blur. I’m just a guy who saw a crack in time that no one else could see. I’m that dog who saw a rainbow, only none of the other dogs believed me.” It’s kind of like that with me. I’m like that dog that can see a rainbow. As maddening as this personality trait must often be to others, I hope my artistic offerings make up for my ramblings, rabbit trails and distractions. I look forward to meeting many more of you as we begin another year of sharing the ideas bouncing around inside my head.

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