Pain

Do not let pain cause you to suffer, because then you have deal with both pain and suffering. The pain is real, the suffering is not. Accept the pain and the suffering will disappear, leaving only the pain to deal with. If the pain is physical in time it too will disappear as you heal. If the pain remains, at least your tolerance to it will increase.

If the pain is one of depression, then it is different, the suffering goes hand in hand with the pain. It is the person’s own thoughts that cause the pain and suffering. Practice mediation, (Not thinking.) engage in creative endeavors, exercise. Anything to distract one from thinking.

Writing is wonderful therapy, because one is taking their thoughts and getting them outside of their mind. (Writing the shit out, as I call it.) Sometimes those thoughts will then stay out. Save these writings, in a journal, or computer file, when you read them again the problems will seem less important.

In time there will be less and less problems to write about. When one runs out of problems to write about, it could lead to the end of the problems. If one writes about the serious problems first, the ones that follow will seem trivial by comparison. In time they will all seem less important.

If you are a depressed older person, think back to when you were happy, and know that before the pain you were, and after the pain you will remain. The pain is transient, you are not.

If you are a depressed young person, take it from an old person, it does get better as you age. In fact, if part of your depression is caused by people your own age, seek out some older people to talk to, they will be less judgmental, and more likely to accept you for who you are.

Lastly, if your depression is so bad that you are thinking of suicide, don’t do it. Get help. I have managed to live my life into old age, and I still have much I need to accomplish. So do you. When we die, we will be a long time dead. To bring it on before it is time is not the answer. Death is permanent, depression does not have to be.  

https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

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The March of the Machines

Just about any manufactured item can be described as Functional Art. Designed not only to do what it is supposed to do, but to look appealing also.

If you are choosing between two similar priced items of similar quality, you are most likely going to pick the one that looks cool, all other things being equal.

When I built bicycle frames in England during the 1970s my customers were almost exclusively racing cyclists. They bought my bikes mainly because they rode and handled well and were reasonably priced. A few file marks showing under the paint showed it was a handmade item.

On moving to the US in 1979 I saw that American framebuilders paid a great deal of attention to detail and paint finish of the product, because their customers were swayed by aesthetics as much as what was beneath the paint.

However, aesthetics and function must go hand in hand, hence the term Functional Art. If someone made a musical instrument that looked beautiful but sounded awful, what use would it be apart from something to hang on the wall and look at? The beauty of a well-crafted bicycle is in the way it rides and handles.

How did these qualities get into the bicycle frame other than through the builder? Through design and skill, there is a part of the builder in every frame he makes. When a craftsman practices a skill long enough it becomes second nature, automatic without conscious thought.

This is not a new notion, the Native American called this “Hand Magic.” Nature bringing something into creation through the artist’s hands. When an ant colony builds an ant hill, is this any different from man building his cities and roadways? Just on a different scale.

The Native American sees mankind as part of Nature, not separate from it. There is nothing in Nature that is not beautiful, the only ugliness is manmade.

Man builds a barn in a field and paints it red. It is an eyesore, a blight on the environment. Given time the barn becomes derelict. Nature takes over and the barn becomes a thing of beauty. Photographers come to photograph it, artists come to capture it on canvas.

If the artist is connected to the creative source in the first place, then his creation will be beautiful to begin with. It is not even necessary for the artist to be aware of this. Had anyone put forward this point of view to me some forty years ago, I would have dismissed it as nonsense.

It was only towards the end of my framebuilding career in the early 1990s did I realize that all creativity or art comes from one source only, be it music, painting, or even bicycle frames.

You can still find handcrafted bicycle frames, but the majority are designed and manufactured like everything else. That is not to say they are inferior from a functional standpoint, they may even perform better. And as for aesthetics, well they are smooth and shiny, what more can you ask for, or expect.

On reflection, it seems to me that what the customer demands of the craftsman making a hand-built item, is a look of perfection. As if it came out of a mold or was made by machine. When the craftsman attains this, the machines are not only ready to take over, the customer is ready to accept the machine-made item.

Automobiles were once built by hand, and yet the finest craftsman, hand beating an auto body panel, could never reproduce a modern body panel. One that is stamped by a die that was machined by a computer-controlled piece of equipment.

As for function, the modern robot-built automobile will outperform its hand-built counterpart of yesteryear. The robots are of course built by skilled engineers, but once built work for a lot less, and produce more than individual craftsmen.

Items still must be initially designed by someone creative, an artist. However, with the computer being the modern-day design tool of choice, and from there going to the programmer of the machines and robots. I am not sure where the "Hand Magic" comes into the equation.

It appears the hand of the craftsman is about to be bypassed completely, in the name of progress. The march of the machines.

The problem is in time will humankind lose contact with the creative source, his contact with Nature. As I said earlier, it is not necessary for the artist to be aware that he is connected to the creative source, but it is necessary that he at least continue to create.

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Tiny Ripples on the Pond of Life

A line in my song “Prodigal Child” goes:

“I used to lie in the long grass and watch the clouds go by, as a child my world was happy, only people made me cry.”

Sadly, today it is still people who make me cry. I will go so far as to say there is not a single thing wrong with this world today if it were not for people.... Or to be more precise, people misbehaving.

Hardly a week goes by that there is not some mass shooting or act of terrorism somewhere. I can handle the occasional natural disaster, but I can’t understand why people can’t behave properly and not kill other people. It makes me sad… It makes me cry.

It seems to me the biggest drive in life is to affect the lives of others. We can do this in a positive way, or we can do it in a negative way. Unfortunately, many people do not figure this out.

Young people especially. Bullying, vandalism, destroying things, which if taken to extremes includes killing people. All effect the lives of others in a negative way. Events sometimes so horrendous they affect a whole nation, and even the World beyond.

If any good is to come from these insane acts, it can only be that we need to realize and teach our children that this urge to affect the lives of others is natural.

It takes almost no thinking or effort to do this in a negative way, when with a small conscious effort, it can be quite easy to do so in a positive way.

Who knows what affect a simple smile, a kind word or action can have on the rest of the world?

For every action there is a reaction. Actions both good and bad have a ripple effect, cause a chain reaction so to speak.

Like a ripple, the affect has most of its power felt by those close to its source, further out the ripple has less affect. 

However, ripples can start small, cause others to join in, and they can gain energy and travel far.  A harsh word or unkind act can ruin someone’s day and may push someone who is unstable enough over the edge that they might just kill someone.

Giving the finger to a fellow traveler on the highway may cause that person to drive angrily and aggressively, resulting a crash that kills someone. On the other hand, a small ripple started by a simple smile, if joined by enough other small ripples can form a large wave that travels far, and affects a lot of people.

Today I will try not to let the rudeness and negative acts of others affect me. If it stops with me, at least I am not passing it on where it might gain momentum. I will try to start my own tiny ripples, with positive thoughts and actions. Who knows, it may just gather momentum, travel round the world and come right back to me.

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Plan Ahead

The simple things in life we plan ahead, for example going to the grocery store. We plan the meals we are going to make and create a shopping list.

When we get in the car, we have a definite plan. We decide ahead which grocery store to use, and the route we are going to take. If we need to make a detour to get gas or buy something from another store, we decide ahead of time the order in which we a going to do things.

We cannot imagine driving around aimlessly until we just happen upon a grocery store, And yet so often when it comes to the big things in our lives, careers, relationships, our whole future we have no plan, we drive aimlessly around.

I am often guilty of this which is why I am writing this piece, as a reminder. Being aware of a problem is halfway to fixing it.

Even at this point in my life when most people my age would not buy green bananas, I still make short term goals and feel that my best work is still ahead of me.

I find with short term goals it is easier to remain focused. If I always have a plan, and as long as I am moving forward, I don’t need to think about next week’s grocery list at this moment.

What tricks do use to stay focused and on course?

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Hand Magic

In the mid-1990s I met a Native American from the Coquille Indian Tribe in Oregon. He told me about “Hand Magic.”

Native Americans view themselves as a part of Nature, not separate from it. Their belief is that there is but one creative source, and man is just the vehicle through which art appears. In much the same way as a bird builds a nest, or ants build an ant hill.

When it comes to humans the Native American calls this “Hand Magic,” The Great Spirit guiding the artist’s hand through the mind and creating a piece of pottery, a blanket or some other object.

In the Middle Ages in England as in the rest of Europe men built houses with the minimum of planning or measuring. Just as there is very little planning or measuring in a piece of Indian pottery or weaving.

Today these old crooked thatched roofed cottages still stand and the blend perfectly into the surrounding landscape. They actually add to the beauty of the English countryside.

I have come to realize only man is capable of creating ugliness. A man builds a barn in a field and paints it red, it is ugly, a blight on the environment. But as Nature takes over and the barn becomes derelict it becomes a thing of beauty. People come to photograph it, and artists paint it on canvas. (Above.)

Everything in Nature is beautiful, and if the artist is connected to this Spirit within as he/she creates, the art cannot help but be beautiful.

I have not always subscribed to this thinking, but over the years as I built bicycle frames it became an automatic process, second nature, so to speak.

Metal expands and contracts when it is heated then cools again. In time, through repetition, I knew which way the frame would distort and would actually start brazing with the frame out of alignment so it would be in alignment after it cooled.

The amount the frame was out of line at the start of the process was not a measured amount, it was an amount determined by eye, a feeling if you will.

After a frame was brazed and had cooled it was checked on a surface table and measured with a dial indicator. The frames were always within ten or fifteen thousandth of an inch and therefore required a minimum of cold setting to achieve the final alignment.

In my early years as a frame builder I had also made ornamental iron work, and had painted pictures in oils. When I left the bike business, I was aware that whatever it was within my makeup that allowed me to successfully build bicycle frames, would allow me to embark on other creative endeavors.

Meeting that old Coquille Indian in Oregon confirmed what I had begun to figure out for myself. Now as a writer and songwriter, I believe as many other songwriters do that songs are already written and songwriters just pick them out of the air as they float by.

Some reading this will dismiss it as “New Age” bullshit, and that is okay because thirty or forty years ago I would have done the same.

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