Just got back from playing music with some of my friends.

Just got back from playing music with some of my friends.  Of course, I don't really know if they are my friends or just folk who want to use my talents.  It's hard, sometimes, to be a combat vet.  Trust is something that is earned, usually through time or experience.  It's kind of hard, in a civil situation, to measure the quality of an individual.  A lot of folk can talk a good game, but can they live it?

I say folk instead of people because it seems more personal to me.  Folk are just like "us" with a different point of view.  "People" are at least once removed from the common stream because they CAN be removed from the common stream.  It's a way of identifying the "other".  Folk are a part of us, a part of the whole, in my mind.  Someone who is worthy of recognition as an individual.  "People" is a generic term to describe those who aren't us.

Back to the music.....It is such a major part of my life, a part that time, experience, loss and hard times has not been able to excise from my life.  This is what I was born to do; play music, sing, express my feelings and tell a tale.  My job in this life, so far as I can tell, is to communicate the human experience through as many points of view as I can.  There is my point of view and then there is every one else's.  All are valid.  No exceptions.

So, I played music and sang, told a story or two, did not get paid for my time or talents, and feel no ire because it was my choice.  I knew what I was walking into when I went there.  I was going to be welcomed, announced as being "in the house", applauded just for being there and then asked to play specific tunes.  All of that happened and all of it fed my ego.  Yes, I have an ego.  It's as big as I am and no larger.  My life defines my ego, my ego does not define my life.  I know that I am a worthy individual, that I am "folk".  This helps a lot in my dealings with others.

I want to trust.  I need to trust.  So few are worth trust.  It is not because they are nefarious or evil; it's because they are just not aware.  Ya gotta be able to pay attention to get attention.  How many times will you walk or drive past a road and not know where it goes?  How often will you say a line and not know where it originated?  Metaphorically speaking, this is what we do every day.  We parrot what we hear and call it our own, we live in land that was tamed before out birth and call it ours.  Is this place and time really ours?

These are the ramblings of a drunken musician and singer, just back from an evening in a cheap bar, who spent quality time with friends and acquaintances, doing the things he loves with the life and people he loves.  To live a life we love?  We should all be so lucky.

No one gets out of here alive, so live it like ya mean it.