Helping Other People....

I mentioned in yesterday's update that one of the things I'm looking to do with my music is to help other people. Why would I want to do that? Well, it's mostly for altruistic reason's, but it does carry certain benefits for me, and I'd like folks to know both sides of that particular coin.

I have been involved with music, as a listener, for as long as I can remember, certainly, since the early to mid 1950's, and whenever I was low, or down, the world of music was always my first refuge. In music, I was always able to find a source of comfort, and listening to a record or two, or the radio, I would soon find myself becoming enthusiastic about life again, and find the inner strength to deal with my problems, whatever they might be. In short, music would simply make me happy, at a really fundamental emotional level. Eventually, passively listening to music wasn't enough, and I found I wanted to play the songs that inspired my sense of well being, myself. But, when I aquired my first Guitar, in 1958, or so, I really struggled to learn how to play it. There was no one that I knew, personally, who could help me, I had to find out what to do, from reading books, listening, practising, trial and error, and watching my heroes play. I found it really hard to master, and there were many times when I gave up and lost heart, but, somehow, I found a way to overcome my early fumble fisted efforts, and reached a stage of reasonable competence. I did it the hard way, and taught myself.

Encouraged, then, by my family and friends, I began to play in local bands, and have done so ever since. Although, as I often say, 'I am not the world's greatest Guitarist', there are some things I do reasonably well with my chosen instrument, and I have found that playing Guitar creatively and well gives me an immense sense of satisfaction, and, as my competence has grown over the years, a degree of personal confidence, derived from knowing that, of all the things I have learned to do well in my life, learning to play Guitar was the hardest, for me, but, the one thing that I did, completely on my own. My ability with that instrument is all mine....knowing that small thing has gotten me through many crises of confidence in my life...

A little while ago, for reasons far too complicated to explain, here and now, and despite the above, I became very depressed, depressed to the point of complete demotivation with just about everything in life. I was just barely getting through a series of endless days and nights, wracked with an unfocussed hazey emotional pain, feeling that my life was no longer worth living....for a time, I was no use to anyone, my family, my friends, and, certainly, not to myself. Something had to give, and one day, I simply woke up to the fact that I had to do something, or allow myself to simply slip away. I had a long talk with myself, and decided that my life needed to change, and radically. What I really needed, was to start again, to embark on a new adventure. I found myself writing a song, then another and another...eventually, without even realising it, I had a Cd's worth of original music, and alongside it, the germ of an idea of how to make my new life... I would become an Independent Recording Artist, a full time musician...I have embarked, now, on the implimentation of that plan, and it has been my saviour...

Now, today, I am as happy and optimistic about my life as I have ever been. At first, when I contemplated this turn around in my attitude, I thought I was just lucky. Lucky that I was able to help myself, because I had the inner resources and innate ability to do so. There are so many people in the world, I thought, who are not so lucky as I, people in trouble in their lives, nowhere to go, no way out of their despair. It then occurred to me that, maybe, what I had done was not so remarkable, that most people could do something similar, if only they realised it, and knew a few of the things that I had discovered for myself. But, what exactly had I discovered, really? Simply this, a level of creativity I didn't know I had, a resource I could 'exploit' to change my life.

So, I want to help people, and, by that, what I mean, is that in the process of making my new life work, I can offer encouragement, along with positive, constructive advice about what most of us can do, how to discover our own creativity, and to exploit it, in terms of positive life changes....

Altruistic? Well, sure, a bit. I'm turning my life around and I'm grateful that I can do that, and, I feel, maybe, I can put a little back in the community chest. I also said, earlier, that there are benefits to me from helping others, and that's true. By doing that, I'm giving myself more purpose and resolve, and, maybe, with a little thoughtful development, what I might have here is the basis of a community effort, which in the end may well benefit us all...we'll see...