Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I've felt these patterns before and maybe had brushes with insanity because of my obsession with detail. The path I'm on now is hard to create patterns on, though after two years I'm already trying to. Every city, every show, they're all different. They're all reactions to the environment. They're the accumulations of all the miles of thought as the landscapes change. It's an interesting thing to drive through the collective consciousness of America in 2016. Even weirder is to turn on the TV in the hotel room and see what the political landscape looks like. And even weirder are the talking heads on all the media channels. We are really becoming robots. If you mute the sound and just watch, it's quite numbing.
And then there's beautiful people that come into your life. They welcome you into their lives with open arms and make you feel like a contributor. When kids sing your songs back to you, it's a beautiful feeling. I always feel like my music is like slow food and feel like the attention spans are eroding and maybe I need some glowing lights and fireworks like the commercials on tv. Speaking of, I just watched a few of the college football opening season games and they all looked like bowl games or the Super Bowl. There was so much hoopla involved. Maybe we can't help ourselves. We are human after all and need to keep outdoing ourselves. Too bad we can't make that ultimate decision to do better. To stop and really look at history and forget about where we are now for a minute and rewind the clock to study the course of human history. How about forget about striving to be smarter, how about striving to be wiser. Not richer.
Felt so bad for LSU the other night. They lost the opening game. Would have been a great uplifting thing for all the folks in Baton Rouge who had flooded homes. But I have to say, I've stopped putting my hopes and dreams in other people. There were times that those games could have ruined my whole fall but not anymore. Speaking of insanity! Every year, they run the same offensive plays and expect different results. It's insane to place all your hopes of joy on that grass eating man.
And then I found simplicity in the hills of Hiltons, Va. It was so quiet as I walked on the Carter family property. There was a tiny road with tobacco barns and tractors and people sitting on porches staring blankly as I passed by. I couldn't believe Country music was founded here. People are great man, that's all there is to it. A.P. Carter was possessed by music and he had the will to get out in the world and find the songs. Maybelle was a bad ass. I saw her guitar and couldn't wait to get home to my old Gibson. This little trip gave me confidence that music can come from anywhere. Doesn't matter if you come from a little tiny lane with tobacco barns, tractors and people staring blankly.
I think I decided I didn't need the bright lights. Pretty soon darkness is going to be the new light anyway. Isn't that right America?
