Meaning a life: refusing to be victimized by experience

Meaning a Life. Shortly after the book appeared, the poet Michael Heller praised its sensibility in the New York Times Book Review: it “has that rarest of qualities in an autobiography, a story of lives refusing to be victimized by experience."

Easy for me to promote. I've a job, my health, my ability to still play, my social circles of musical colleagues, my hopes and dreams. 

Regardless of those "privileges", we are ageing musicians. The circle of opportunity is closing. It's difficult to renew our fan base when our cohort is slowing dwindling and to potential younger fans we look like their dads or worse, granddads.

Screw it. 

We Boomers are going out swingin', rockin', poppin' scrappin', and tootin'. No stopping us. 

What have we overcome to keep playing?

1. cancer
2. divorce
3. Covid-19
4. deafness
5. blindness
6. forced early retirement
7. alcoholism 
8. retirement
9. mobility issues
10. dental mayhem
11. poverty
12. drug addiction
13. extreme wealth
14. dis-interested families
15. arthritis
16. concussions
17. multiple surgeries

(I've compiled this list from the experiences of my students, jamming colleagues, and jazz camp buddies.)

• Yet we play on.
• Our intensity has not dimmed. 
• I'm humbled
• I'm impressed

I'm going to go and practice. 
​
David