Thursday, January 16, 2014

Awash in Talent

Germain to the topic of supply and demand are the many artists creating their own particular brand of music in this digital world. As the mother of three adult children, all of whom are contemporary music composers/musicians, my ear not only listens to their marvelous creations (no, really, it's not because I am their mother) but thanks to them, sounds also float through my house that their aged mother would have never before known about.

One the one hand, the amount of talent out there is phenomenal. Thanks to the easy availability of software for composing and recording, not to speak of YouTube - the instant window to the world if you can get anyone to click on your channel - the cup runneth over with good juice. But true to the law of supply and demand in this mysterious material world, the supply outweighs the demand. In plain English, this means that only the lucky few stand out from the crowd to garner the attention a.k.a. bucks to convert their passion into rent money, food, health care (oy) and other necessities of life (not to mention supporting a family).

The bottom line always comes to this: if you don't love what you are doing, day to day life chores such as earning a living become a form of slow psychic death, unless you understand the following koan.

Q. What does one do before enlightenment?
A. Chop wood and carry water.

Q. What does one do after enlightenment?
A. Chop wood and carry water.

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