Crossing Lanes: Epilogue

It has been a blessing to have had the opportunity to keep working on my new book. A constant thread that connects the days no matter where I am. And fruitful! I'm about to finish the second draft of the book about Zen, Jazz and Orff that explores their common ground and what they might offer to a “blueprint for a happier future” (a possible subtitle). I’m hoping to send it off soon to a potential publisher. Looking at their submission form, the hardest question is to name the category. Since the book takes place at the crossroads of various disciplines, it’s hard to pigeonhole it into one category. Not exactly Spirituality or Healing or Music or Education or Culture, but elements of all of these and more. 

 

At any rate, why not share a few excerpts here to test the waters. Not that this Blog is set up for comments and conversation (though anyone is welcome to send thoughts to me at Goodkindg@aol.com), but just to put it out into the world and see if it might find its proper place. These next posts are from the last chapter, an Epilogue summarizing the main themes of the book. (The words in bold are actually chapter titles.) I’ll present them in reverse order (ie, the ending of the chapter will be in the most recent blog once I begin). Hopefully, they’ll accomplish what I hope in any of my writing— some affirmation, some challenge, some new perspective, some inspired writing. Again, feel free to let me know, but I won’t be waiting at the e-mail box. Just see if there’s anything here that “speaks to your condition.” Enjoy!

 

“Stay in your lane” seems to be the accepted wisdom for success in a career, the efficient running of an organization and safe driving on the freeway. I don’t consider myself a reckless driver, but I seem to have had trouble staying in one lane. Not only switching back and forth on the freeway but getting off it altogether and exploring all the intriguing back roads and side roads. This whole book is my slide show sharing the wonders of not only traveling diverse highways and byways but also noting the fascinating intersections where they cross and re-cross. But beyond a few hopefully interesting snapshots of life at the crossroads, how can any of this—or all of this— be of use?

 

For starters, though it’s clear that an increased interest in Zen, Jazz or Orff is not going to heal the world, each and all do have the power to transform an individual life. Each might prove to be the ideal partner you have secretly been longing to meet, but didn’t know it until suddenly you do. Your undeveloped spirituality or musicality or educational vision serendipitously now finds its voice and calls you into a lifetime transformational practice. Indeed, there is ample testimony from those engaged in these practices that they came to them as a voice calling unexpectedly like the trout in Yeat’s poem:

 

“When I had laid it on the floor and went to blow the fire aflame,

Something rustled on the floor and someone called me by my name.

It had become a glimmering girl, with apple blossoms in her hair,

Who called me by my name and ran, and faded through the brightening air…”

 

Perhaps a sentence in this book had your name in it and you’re inspired to follow the one who called you until you eventually “walk among long dappled grass” together. 

 

Yet as noted at the beginning, the greater hope here is to look at the qualities of practice these three disciplines share in common and consider how they resonate in your own life, your own field of interest. And then consider again how they might contribute to the greater common need to collectively heal a broken world.