"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
Robert A. Heinlein's character, Lazarus Long
What a day today! Still hitting the 50's in November in Michigan! I get to spend two hours in the garden today, finishing the mulching and putting all of the stray pots in the Greenhouse. Along with all my other garden duties, I am going to have to get a soil sample so that I can really know our soil and try and meet the needs. Most of our veggies' grew brilliantly, but it can always be better and since Joe and I have to be all things to the garden - soil experts, harvesters, planters, weeders, greenhouse keepers and insect savvy - We seem to continuously be learning something new and staying open so that we are understanding all things are joined in our lives and nature. The more information, the more we can live with integrity - a connectedness.
When I left performing, and because it really was at the top of my game - I heard all kinds of reasons why I left. My favorite continues to be that I am/was afraid of success. It is incomprehensible to many, especially musicians who crave big stages and big crowds, that leaving when you are successful, well, there just has to be something wrong with you. What never seems to be considered is that I had accomplished my vision. The group was fantastic, the crowds amazing, the music was the best that I have ever played in a live situation (Lucy Mongrel wins for recorded efforts) - but honestly, I had done it all before. I had accomplished what I set out to do. What was the point of doing the same thing over and over again? For applause? That becomes empty and meaningless quick. Besides I was teaching full time which was rocking my world and wanted to do solo recordings, learn to cook, have a huge garden, write books, poetry and songs, pursue my spiritual interests and the list keeps growing.
To just do one thing, pursue one career, seems to me, too specialized, pointless. Now, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people who are perfectly happy doing just that. And I say bless every one of them. But I wanted to be a citizen of the world, the universe - which meant that I needed to "know" what was happening around me. How are all things connected? What am I really made of? I love sitting at a table with a group of people and not know anything. Wow! You mean an opportunity to learn something else? And besides, the more I know the closer I get to understanding in a more compassionate way what makes people, the world and I, tick. If you have lived it, you can feel it. (Ask anyone who was a waitress if they ever got beyond over-tipping). I knew there were more questions, answers and knowledge, understanding how responsible I needed to be - specialization would only cut me off from what I was truly seeking - being connected.
But the myopic thinking in coming up with cures for what goes on in our world, the specialization if you will, looks just like the illness that we are suffering and trying to cure. A day does not go by in Washington without legislation intending to fix one problem ultimately affecting a host of other issues. It's the principle of unintended consequences, and a fact of life in our complex world where everything has become so compartmentalized that the whole picture is not considered - creating more problems. To be a great Politian would be daunting as you would have to have true knowledge in industrialization, history, economics, environment, infrastructures - while being compassionate, intelligent, spiritual and a true artist. Wow! Know anyone?
Or my favorite is when, for example, the Department of Natural Resources, introduces a non-indigenous animal, fish or plant to "quick fix" something which eventually eradicates all that stands in its way. They haven't concluded, if they keep looking at just that one problem "might' be impacted but not without huge consequences. For example, let's say the birds need more food so why not bring in a plant they can feed on. Before you know it, the indigenous plants have disappeared, along with the snakes, frogs and lack of nesting area for the birds they wanted to feed in the first place. This kind of thinking has never worked. Ever!
The toe bone connected to the heel bone, The heel bone connected to the foot bone, The foot bone connected to the leg bone, The leg bone connected to the knee bone, The knee bone connected to the thigh bone, The thigh bone connected to the back bone, The back bone connected to the neck bone, The neck bone.......
But where it really hits home for me is in the world of medicine. In the book Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies, the author, Leon Hammer, M. D. (along with being an acupuncturist) states that he gravitated towards Chinese medicine because it was the fulfillment of a search for a congenial system of healing that embodies the inseparability of body and mind, spirit and matter, nature and man, philosophy and reality. It is a personal, subtle, gentle, yet highly technical medical system, which allows him to be close to essence - the life force - both his own and that of others".
I remember being on a gruesome road trip with a woman who had set out to make all of our lives miserable. Then to add fire to the hell we were already in, the guitar player went psychotic (we later found out he did this with every band) and I had to fire him, picking up players on the way. It was horrible. But in the meantime my shoulder was shooting non-stop pain up my neck. I could not get it to stop. Every town we pulled into, the first thing I did was see a massage therapist or a chiropractor and yes, even went to an emergency room where they told me to take Tylenol - I was way past Tylenol. The pain was intolerable. I lived in Seattle at the time where my main healthcare practitioner was Jim Dowling, RN and Acupuncturist. He was an emergency nurse and had a thriving Chinese Acupuncture/Herb practice. I called him while on the road, begging him to help me somehow. He kept telling me, "It's not your shoulder, it's your liver". He knew that the rage I was repressing due to the circumstances, the emotions, were being held in the liver sending it up the meridian to my shoulder. Well, sure enough, as soon as I got home, I went to see him, he massaged, poked and cleansed my liver - it was incredible what was being released, oh and by the way, the shoulder pain was immediately gone. Because he had the knowledge of how the body worked as a whole, energetically, emotionally and physically - he could help me quickly and in a non-invasive way.
Not all problems are this simple to fix or is are we lucky enough to find the people that we need to help us out of our situations. I don't profess I have any of the answers. But I do have some big questions. Does it matter who I see as long as they have their eye on the big picture?. If we apply these modalities will it take us to not only a more profound result, but a long-lasting one? One that works? One that doesn't have the impact at someone or something else's expense? How connected is everything to everything? If we look at the whole, will more problems get fixed than just the one we are looking at?
If I am lucky, maybe one day, I will live in a world where all elements of living life have been taken into account - from the smallest critter to a universal alignment - allowing earth to become a masterpiece of harmony, intricacy and movement. A great work of art.
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