Soothing the Beast in All of Us

We are all so emotionally and mentally fragile.   I think most of us hang in the balance, where we could be sent over the edge mentally, and for some of us, it wouldn't take much.  The city can be a tough place to live at times, especially around holidays, when emotions run high.  It can also be a haven for the mentally ill, the homeless, where they can often find shelter, warmth and food.  Somewhere.
Suburban Station offers that to the homeless and the mentally ill.  With the bitter cold temperatures and the snow and ice from this week's storm, the concourse has been a gathering place for many, who otherwise would be freezing.  This week I have become more aware of homelessness and mental illness than during a normal week. 
So many people who are mentally fragile visit me every day.  I'd like to think, it was my music which soothes the tortured beast within them.  I'd like to think my music is the language which we have in common.  There is a an attractive young Asian woman who strides up to me daily, talking a blue streak in an Asian language I don't recognize, non-stop, using hand gestures and pantomime.  Her sweat pants are usually wet to the knees.  She's not dressed for the weather.  There is, however, no negativity in her.  She seems gentle and sweet.  I wish I understood what she says.  Sometimes she mimics rocking a baby.  I'm sure she has a story to tell.  Then there is the man who curses me out.  Every day he calls me all kinds of expletives, as I just continue to sing.  There's also the aging hippie, who always stops and talks to me for about three or four minutes about how I would probably earn more money if he just moved on and left me alone to do my singing.  There's a twinkle in his eye.  He starts to leave, then stops, turns around, and pretends to come back, then starts to leave, turns, pretends to come back, smiling the whole time, like, he's just messing with me.  Then leaves for good.  
Many of the others ask me for money.  Yesterday eight people asked me for money before I got my first tip (they were eyeing the eight dollars I put in the guitar case at the start as "seed money").  The open guitar case with money can be a lure.  Yet I'd like to think it is the music.  Beyond language and words.  Tapping into the emotions directly.
Maybe that's why I feel drained after singing for two-and-a-half hours.  I don't usually take a break.  In that 150 minutes I've sung songs about all kinds of pain and sorrow and joy and love.  I've met so many people who smile at me, as well as those who vent their anger at me, or share a story in Vietnamese, or some other language.  Most of the time their stories are in English, and I've understood every word.  In that short time, I've been through the emotional wringer. 
I don't know what the answer is to homelessness, much less mental illness.
Like war between nations, I think it is a condition that will always exist, as long as there are people on earth. 
And I'd like to think there will always be music, people making music, sharing music, in public and in private, to soothe the beast within all of us.....

Wisdom, Blessings, Children's Smiles

I arrived on Monday morning at the P&C Restaurant, as usual, to get my green tea and bottle of water.  I always like checking in with my Korean friends who run the restaurant.  The cook is also a very friendly and warm gentleman, albeit a man of few words.  He always calls me "Mr. David," out of respect.  As I wished them a good day, the cook smiled at me and said, "Play from the heart."

Simple words of advice.  But somehow those words hit me between the eyes.  They just seemed so profound at the moment.  I've always known, with creating any art, straight from the heart is the best way to go.  But somehow his reminding me of this was a gift at this moment.  I thanked him for his wisdom.
His words echoed in my head the entire time I played and sang that day.
Thank you, Mr. Joseph, for your wisdom.
Often I receive rewards other than coins and dollar bills for my playing.  A young woman in a Santa Claus hat stood before me yesterday, smiling.  At the end of the song, I smiled back.  All she said was, "God bless you."  She moved on.....
The holidays are all about children.  Mothers and fathers are walking through the concourse now doing holiday shopping or maybe just enjoying being out among people in this season of lights.  Often when children are wheeled by in strollers, their eyes become transfixed on me.  I'm sure I catch their attention. Voice, guitar, the novelty.  Often they are old enough to point at me or smile with crinkly eyes, sparkling eyes.  Yesterday a grandmother was drinking coffee and eating pastries with two young girls, maybe four and six.  They kept turning around and looking at me, pointing, smiling.  Finally the grandmother gave one of them a dollar.  Shyly she inched her way toward me and hesitated, before dropping her dollar into my case.  I wished her a Merry Christmas....  Grandmother and girls left, but passed by me twice during the next hour to wave and smile.....
I think the light and sparkle...the entire spirit of the season.... was captured in that 6-year-old smile.
Blessings.  God has blessed me.
Feliz Navidad.

Grand Coincidence Brings Us Together

This week has been an interesting and beautiful week.  It started out with a delivery woman from the flower store with her bicycle helmet and sunglasses on,  passing out flowers, long-stemmed white lilies, to everyone sitting at the tables near me, and she even placed a lily in my guitar case.  At the end of the day, I left my flower in a bottle of spring water with the woman who runs the Asian Restaurant.
And then the woman from Iran, who swings by every day to check the mail for her company, stopped by to talk this time.  It was great getting to know her.  She has the most infectious smile...  She works for the Welcome Bureau of Philadelphia, and was wondering if I'd play for her holiday party.....Muslims celebrating Christmas.....  I think of the news, the bombings, the demonstrations in Tehran these days.  Yet it is not an issue for us.  Muslim, Christian, atheist...we're all brothers and sisters.....  The festival of  lights brings us together....
And yesterday, there was the young banjo player from Georgia, who plays "clawhammer" style...covered with tatoos, singing in a high-pitched Appalacian style to accompany his playing.  He is a new-comer, first day...very enthusiastic and optimistic....  We hit it off immediately and I have found a new brother....
And today, a mentally-deranged Asian woman I've see many times, spoke no English with me, only an Asian language I didn't recognize, and machine-gunned me in that sweet language and wouldn't stop.  I started singing, in English, of course, to counter her monologue, and her harangue softened, as her face softened.  She smiled and her voice started to take on tonal qualities, and she ended up blending with me, harmonizing with me in her language....beautiful and sweet...her face softened and she was almost crying.....  We were connecting, without understanding...as she swayed back and forth.  Raw emotion...  At the end of the song, she turned and walked away....
Annie Dillard writes "grand coincidence brings us together, upright and within earshot, in this flickering generation of human life on this durable planet--common language or not..."
Yes, the music can take you to new places of enlightenment.....beyond language, beyond culture and history, to a place where there are no political or cultural barriers, where language doesn't exist, where the only language spoken is Love....

Electricity in the Air, New Songs

It's hard not to feel it, there's an electricity in the air.  The holidays will do that.  Monday, as I was singing and playing, shipments of white and red poinsettias rumbled by on dollies.  Business at the flower shop near to where I sing has picked up.  Shoppers carry large bags, bulging with rolls of wrapping paper from the dollar stores.  Salvation Army bellringers beckon us to give, shaking their bells, in harmony, at opposite ends of the concourse.  Maybe that's a coincidence, that they are in harmony, but I don't think so.  I was informed by a hammer-dulcimer player, that one bell was in B-flat.  Ring, ring, ring...reminds me of my childhood on the streets of Boston.
The electricity is infectious, and music is part of that.  I've added a few secular holiday songs, like "Silver Bells," to brighten my setlist.  Share the spirit.  They balance out the heavier songs of August Sky that question society, not to mention those of Eddie Vedder like "Society" and "Long Nights," and those by  Donovan like "Try for the Sun" and "Ballad of the Crystal Man," which questions war.  I tend to fall in love with dark songs.
I've also added several of my favorite August Sky songs.  You can listen to these on our webpage:
www.cdbaby.com/augustsky1 and www.cdbaby.com/augustsky2
It's interesting to me that Patricia and I wrote so many songs to celebrate and pay tribute to the older people in our lives.  To paint a picture of the poignancy of aging.  These songs include "92," "In the Soft Light of Morning," and "The Bag Lady."  I'm also singing songs of yearning by August Sky like "Dreams of Horses," "Looking for Jonathan," and "Searching."
Regardless of your background or beliefs, there is a lot of good music out there this month, both live and recorded.  I hope you're able to enjoy some of it.  Music takes us to a different place, a magic place. 
My wish for you during the holidays is that you find that different, that magic place.