Despite over a decade of doing concerts that averaged under 100 people, I still have dreams of my music impacting lots of people. But music is just one part of my life, and not even a top priority currently. Are those dreams delusions?
More relevant data: 1. I've played some larger shows, 2. I've gotten encouraging feedback about my songwriting from professionals, 3. one song I wrote has impacted a lot people, 4. my music has helped people in real ways.
There's some evidence my music has potential to be enjoyed and useful beyond my immediate circle of relationships. That doesn't really settle the issue of whether it's delusional or even helpful to hope for a really big impact. I have questions about whether the benefits of greater success would outweigh its costs and challenges. In my life I've seen great value in dreams: in having them, pursuing them, and in becoming wiser about what you will and will not sacrifice to attain them.
4 comments:
Thanks for these posts about delusions and dreams... important stuff, and helpful, and inspiring to see someone with the nerve to dream and question "out loud" as you're doing in your blog...
A few questions, a couple of observations, and a story (or two)...
1) what do you mean by "a really big impact"...?
2) what do you mean by "a lot of people"...?
3) what do you mean by "success" and "greater success" and "trying to make it big"...?
I get the impression that you're measuring things like "impact" and "success" by (among other things) size of venue and number of people at an event. (I also can't help but wonder if this also has something to do with your recent experience - as you wrote on your Dandelion Seed Company blog - of attending the U2 concert in Cville).
You know where I'm going with this, I'm sure. There are, of course, many other ways to measure "impact" and "success"...
A few examples come to mind. Woody Guthrie... read Joe Klein's "Woody Guthrie: A Life"... traveling around, playing small venues, amassing ridiculous numbers of songs... (and of course, as they say, without Guthrie there would be no Dylan, and Springsteen, and so on, and so on)...
And Pete Seeger (read "How Can I Keep From Singing: Pete Seeger" by David Dunaway)... who, on the verge of "making it big" (although he had attained some "significant successes" - whatever those words mean - earlier) was blacklisted and banned from the "mass media" that could have taken him and his music "to the next level" (as they say)... so he spent the next pile of years traveling around and playing college campuses and smaller venues (including children!)... which, ironically, gave him a far greater (and different kind of) "impact" - it seems to me - than if he had gone a more mainstream route...
And then there are folks like Bob Franke (www.songjournal.blogspot.com), who I only heard of relatively recently, but some of whose songs I have known and loved for a long time (without knowing they were his)...
I also think of my great-grandfather, K.H.Neufeld, who criss-crossed western Canada from the 30s to the 60s, leading "songfests" with small communities... when I tour in western Canada, I still get folks coming up to me with a K.H. story, and saying "your great-grandfather taught me to sing..."
Perhaps I've wandered rather far from your questions and musings. But maybe not. I absolutely affirm your willingness to "see visions and dream dreams" (Acts 2:17; Joel 2:28)... and God knows history is full of those who have called (and still call) them delusions...
Just don't let those "dreams and visions" be too limited by what our culture might be predisposed to call "a big impact" or "success"... there are more ways to have "a big impact" than we know, and the examples I've mentioned above are in some ways role models of that for me...
And when you say you've done "a decade of doing concerts that averaged under 100 people," I think that puts you in good company indeed...
I just re-read the first sentence of your post and did a little math...
hmmm...
What's you're definition of "lots of people" again...?
Which song is it that you are referencing?
Bryan- Great comments. Great questions? Jonathan keep dreaming...
I don't know why but your post-modern blog and taking a break blog made me think you need to hear this verse...
Thus says the Lord:
Stand at the crossroads,
and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way lies;
and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16
It is planted right smack dab in the middle of a chapter given the approriate subtitle "The Imminence and Horror of the Invasion."
I think it might be a good one for you now as it has been good for me for the last few years.
Your music, an old CD you gave to Matt long ago, has given me some seriously worshipful moments. That's the thing that really matters in life, giving Glory to GOD and calling others to join in celebrating the living water of His LOVE.
(I need to check out the new stuff now that we've rediscovered you!)
Joy
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