Why do good people vote for bad ideas? Emotion

There is still one piece of the recent election results that puzzles me, but first let me say this isn't so much a political piece, but a psychological piece. I'm fascinated by what makes people tick, what motivates them, what they believe and why, and, more specifically, why people who are presented with overwhelming evidence act against their interests. Even more specifically, why do good, smart people vote for bad candidates with horrible ideas?

As a society who wants to move forward we need to figure this shit out.

We all have friends who are somewhat or very conservative, and just like any other personality trait, it just makes them who they are. They aren't blinded by religion, hate, racism, or a "nation of idiots" as the comedian Andy Borowitz joked after the election this month, even though a small vocal minority can make it seem that way. (I really do believe the bile posted on social media is the exception and not the majority; maybe I'm naive or underestimating the Fox News brainwashing power, but I know many conservatives who are great people.)

People who have the conservative personality trait are usually hard-working, honest, smart, and driven. (Think of your friends, neighbors, and co-workers here, not FB trolls.) So my question is how can they allow such a ridiculous set of people (Palin, Cruz, McConnell, Limbaugh, Coulter, etc.) with really bad ideas (trickle down economics, climate change denial, overt racism and bigotry, etc.) lead the party?

In other words, how has the GOP turned into a party where knowledge and thought are a weakness and blindly consuming Fox News falsehoods and narratives is virtuous?

The day after the election I read something by The Rude Pundit that stuck with me:

"Here's everything you need to know about the 2014 midterms in a single anecdote: Last week, as he's mentioned, the Rude Pundit convinced the Rude Brother to vote for the Democrat, Mary Landrieu, in the Louisiana Senate race. The Rude Brother has long been Republican, but he is also for raising taxes on the wealthy, doesn't care about gay marriage, thinks abortion should be safe and legal, and agrees that humans contribute to climate change, among other beliefs. By just about any measure of politics, the Rude Brother is moderate-left, a Democrat. When the conversation ended, RB had said he would vote for Landrieu.

"Cut to Election Day morning. The Rude Pundit received a text from RB: "And, in the end, the kid couldn't pull the trigger for Mary." A little later, he got another message: "It felt dirty voting for Landrieu." RB went with Bill Cassidy, the Republican, who believes the opposite of everything RB believes in. In fact, Bill Cassidy will try to take health insurance away from our Rude Sister and her family. RB had said he has no problems with Obamacare. Well, he does now.

"There you have election 2014. A voter goes into the booth believing the world should be a certain way and then pushes the buttons for the candidates who will do everything they can to stop the world from being that way." --The Rude Pundit 11/5/2010

So, we have a country who voted progressive on almost all the ballot initiatives presented--gun control, personhood amendments, gay marriage, marijuana tolerance, minimum wage hikes--yet voted in the very Republicans who vow to act against them. One of the bigger "What the fuck?" political moments of our time, right?

The great question is "Why?!"

If we're going to move forward and not be held hostage by insane tea-party candidates with backwards ideas, we really have to figure this out.

We know from the great Jonathan Haidt why people vote either left or right. His book "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion" was groundbreaking in the field of moral psychology by explaining how our brains are hard-wired to influence our world perceptions and therefore dictate how we operate politically. (If you're interested in moral psychology then this book is a must read.) Here's a Ted Talk with him presenting his research if you're interested.

But it still doesn't explain the Rude Pundit's brother, who agrees with progressive principles but "feels dirty" voting for progressives.

It doesn't explain how a country of smart, hard-working people can look to a party where Sarah Palin is seen as a rockstar or where a lady who literally ran a campaign based upon hog castration is able to win. Nor does it explain how a state such as Kansas, whose economy has been so decimated by conservative trickle-down economics that leading state GOP voices crossed lines and openly endorsed the democratic candidate, and yet the people of the state could not bring themselves to make that change.

For that, I have a few ideas.

Democrats are the party of the mind, and GOP is the party of the heart. The pervading wave of anti-intellectualism has created perfect conditions for nationalism to take hold without a "pull back the curtain" moment to discover the underlying racism and bigotry that hides beneath it. (And at its worst the nationalism is actually driven by the racism and bigotry, and the degree to which you see these motivating forces is based upon your overall confidence and optimism in your fellow Americans.)

When fears are presented and promoted as what should be the top political issues, people will go with heart. Images of bald eagles, soldiers, guns, and American flags resonate deeper than charts, graphs, and endless opportunity cost discussions. They give a sense of safety and security.

If I can create a sense of fear and then present the following solutions, then I have you. Turn your brain off, you have no use for that anymore. I will tell you what to fear, but I will also tell you the solutions. Don't let those bleeding heart liberals, who care about everyone and everything, sway you from protecting yourself and your family. God, Guns, and Power are all you need. You are chosen, you are special, and you must fight to keep it! 

It is so simple and so effective that I don't think the progressives will ever be able to match it.

A few weeks ago we voted in candidates who brought no new ideas to the table, and, worse yet, came with ideas and world-views that have been overwhelmingly discredited by anyone who gives a serious look to the issues. But we voted in people who give us simple, forceful solutions to what we've been told to fear.

We were motivated by conviction over practicality, by ideology over reality, and by emotion over reason.

Somehow we have to figure out how to combat emotion with the complex nuance of real solutions, and that's a tough thing to do. There are no easy answers, other than just have the confidence that we can trust each other to understand complex solutions for complex problems. We are not a nation of idiots--we've solved some very tough problems throughout our history. The historical precedent is there, but we just can't let ourselves be sidetracked with emotional dead-ends.

--Brian Paul Swenk

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Politics of fear and cowardice in the mid-term election.

While many of us are quite surprised at the outcome of yesterday's election, you have to remember that our government was founded on the "balance of power" and that balance is supposed to teeter-totter back and forth. That's one of the things that has always kept this country at the forefront of world dynamics and is true of all successful governments throughout history. It's a natural democratic phenomenon and will hopefully continue, albeit in a healthier fashion.

Conservative vs liberal is very much like having both extroverted and introverted friends. They are a balance and both bring important things to the table. Too much introversion can be crippling and too much extroversion can be exhausting. This dynamic dichotomy was the birth of democracy, and anywhere that democracy has been successful you will find a healthy exchange.

The problem is not that the balance of power has shifted to the GOP, the problem is how we are allowing it to happen. We have allowed a party to sweep an election not by bringing great ideas to the table, but by using the well-honed conservative trump card of fear. Obama, Isis, ebola, gay marriage, minimum wage, unions, terrorism, abortion, Putin -- these are the things to be feared for our very existence. The GOP, much like many religious institutions, understand that fear is one of the largest motivating factors in our psychological underpinnings and they use it masterfully.

There was hardly any mention of education funding, green tech revolution, the deficit being slashed, much lower unemployment, massive corporate profits, consistent job growth, and on and on, because there is no deep-seated motivating factors in those issues. You can't convince someone that those issues will destroy your family in the way gay marriage is bound to do.

Should the Koch Brothers dark lord money masters be ashamed of monopolizing people's fears so they vote against their interests? Well, yes, if they had any sense of morality. Even Darth Vader showed empathy in his last moments of life.

But that's not where the shame should be placed today. No, it should be placed squarely at the liberal party's feet. The shame of fear-mongering is only trumped by the shame of cowardice, and that is what the Democratic Party should be facing head-on at this very moment, if there is any sense of responsibility.

Almost every single economic indicator has been turned around in the last 6 years, and any bi-partisan assessment of Obamacare has shown it to be an overall positive boost to both the economy and the deficit, yet Dems chose to consistently place themselves as far away from Obama as possible. How do you plan to win an election with the message, "Our party has turned the economy around, but I don't agree with it?"  That is pure idiotic cowardice.  Alison Grimes' main platform was how different she was from the President and didn't even have the guts to say she voted for him -- that's cowardice.

Political bravery would have been to say:
"We've slashed the deficit, but we should do MORE by investing in massive infrastructure upgrades while interest rates are rock bottom."
"We've patched a massive hole in the health-care system by allowing so many middle and working class people to purchase affordable insurance, but we should do MORE by figuring out how to extend that to the people of the conservative states who are being held political hostage."
"We've seen Wall Street profits soar to an all-time high, but we should do MORE by closing tax-loopholes and directing that money to education and hi-tech manufacturing retraining programs."
"I will work tirelessly for a constitutional amendment to end the Citizens United ruling, not because it will further my career, but because it will make the country better for our kids and grandkids"

But no, Dems marched lock-step onto the battlefield of fear and thought they could stand mano a mano with the dark lord self-serving billionaires and come out on top.

In the moment it was all very confusing, but in hindsight it was a myopic self-crippling strategy that didn't deserve to win. But it was also a strategy that we, the electorate, sat back and allowed to happen on our watch. We have just as much shame and blame as the Dems out there fighting--maybe even more.

The pendulum swings, panic and fear rules, yet somehow the human race continues to move itself forward in progressive tides that are forever strengthened by education, knowledge and a deep-seated humanistic empathy. If you want true change then never stop learning, never stop challenging yourself to new ideas and concepts, find common ground, and don't settle for fear-based narratives; but most importantly, demand that the people who represent you do the same.  Politicians only suck because we've stopped caring and have allowed them to.

(If you enjoy these please subscribe on the left of this page, and/or share. Thanks!)

Brian Paul Swenk

Why you should vote in the midterm election.

The midterm elections are coming up in a couple of weeks, and if you're like me, you've never even considered voting in them. They don't have the sex appeal of the Presidential elections where we can strut our civic participatory asses around feeling like we did our part for our "team," whichever side that is.

But extremist politics call for extreme efforts, like voting in the midterm elections.

Let's flip it around and look at why people won't/don't vote:

"Voting doesn't change anything."
If this were true the conservative movement wouldn't be making Herculean efforts behind the scenes to stop people from voting. The amount of gerrymandering, deception, and voter ID laws that happen behind the scenes is a true testament to the one act that can stop, or at least slow, the huge siphoning of wealth from the middle class to the top 1%.  If voting didn't matter, the Koch brothers would not dump hundreds of millions into purchasing elected officials. Trust me, it really does matter, they know it, and they're trying to disenfranchise or deceive as many people as possible.

"All politicians are crooked and paid off."
Here you have to differentiate between "all" and "a lot." One of the great misconceptions about politics is it only attracts crooks and liars, right? That is completely false. Most--and I do mean MOST--people get into politics for all the right reasons, the first and foremost being to just help the people around them. It is the system that takes good people and turns them bad. Congress is advised to spend half their time calling/begging/asking for money every single year to fund future campaigns. Of course the sheer pressure of this leads to short cuts and corruption. But not always! Follow Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for outstanding proof of good, solid, honest people in the US Congress. Remember, a congressional vote happened this year to stop the horrible Citizens United ruling by the supreme court that allows corporations to donate unlimited amounts of cash to politicians. It split party lines as Dems voted to overturn the ruling while Repubs voted to keep it. Are they working for the middle class or are they working for the billion dollar companies?

"Government is inherently evil and should be stopped at all costs"
In 2008 I supported Ron Paul and the beginnings of the Tea Party Movement and I fell into this line of thinking. It's like the great scene in the Steve Martin movie "The Jerk."  "I don't need any of this stuff! I don't need anything! Except the fire department! That's it! ....and police! But that's all! Okay...schools...and maybe the CDC and hospitals...and food safety...and roads...but that's all! Well maybe bridges...and workers rights...and social security for Gramma..."

North Carolina, which has always been one of the most admired and progressive states in the south has fallen into the hands of conservative extremists. We quickly plummeted to the bottom of country for education spending, and it became so bad that teachers across the state started driving to Raleigh every week for the "Moral Monday" protests. Do we really want to live in a state where teachers have to protest for the simple morality of education? Do we want leaders that have piledriven us so hard into the ground that national publications started printing articles with headlines like "The Decline of North Carolina?"

So go vote and show everyone in DC that the "scorched-earth" politics that started with Newt Gingrich and continue to this day with Mitch McConnell are not a winning strategy. McConnell has said, "As long as Republicans refused to follow Obama's lead, Americans would see partisan food fights and conclude that Obama failed to produce change." They're willing to damage thousands of lives and families to make the president look bad.

But all that aside, all we need to do is look at the last 100 years of American economic history. There are 30 years where we grew the middle class to such a degree that American really was "the greatest country in the world." This happened with the federal government heavily investing in the poor and middle class, which started a brilliant cycle of growth. Jobs were created because the middle class was large and had buying power, not because billionaires received massive tax breaks. Education, public works projects, and a middle class moving upwards--these are symptoms of a healthy vibrant economy.

If you think voting doesn't matter--if you think politics is an evil barren wasteland--just go back and look at what happened from 1945-1975. We might not ever be able to achieve that type of growth again, but we're too rich of a country to have 20% of our kids on food stamps when their parents are working as much as possible. That is unacceptable.

So vote, and just importantly, understand what works for the middle class. Here's a hint: it's not tax breaks for billionaires.

The Good and the Bad of the Lockn2014 Experience.

The "Lockn2014" Experience

Lockn' is a great festival, and it might be the future of music festivals, but I certainly hope not.

Lockn' is an experiment in the ever-changing music industry to find success in a world where the actual art of recorded albums is being devalued every day but the group experience of the art, such as massive festival packages, is slowly swelling into an over-saturated economic bubble. 

This experiment is one of division.
1. Divide the audience into "general admission," "VIP," and "Super-VIP."
2. Divide the bands into only the headliners.
3. Divide the experience into only the main experience.

You could not be at the festival and avoid the realization that everyone was divided into the haves and have-nots. General admission was relegated to the far sides of each stage, while VIP had the middle of the field, and Super VIP was so regulated in the front of the stages that they were not even letting the artists inside. Seriously, you just performed for 20K people, but security says that you can't go to the front of the stage to see anyone else play. (To be fair, I'm sure a headliner could get a production manager to escort them through, but if you walked up with an "artist pass" you were denied.)

Lockn2014 Experience

VIP

General Admission

And it's very easy to look at this and say, "What does it matter? If they want to pay more for a different experience, it is in their right, and it doesn't affect anything." But in a macro-sense the segregation of people through categories only diminishes the sought after group-experience that make festivals so attractive. Let's go back in time and hyper-divide Woodstock into socio-economic, age and even racial groups and suddenly it loses everything it is known for. Live music is meant to be a social, group experience, which is why festivals are so popular, but this trend of division only erodes the very essence of that spirit. Rolling Stone discussed this trend a few months ago.

Next step: divide the bands into major headliners that most of the people are there to see, and with a few small exceptions, only hire those bands to play. It seems as though the owners of the festival, two very experienced and seasoned music-industry guys, worked with the 80/20 rule of business. (80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes) 80% of the people will come for 20% of the bands, so just hire those 20% and save massive amounts of money on production, hospitality, and talent costs. From a business sense this is turning out to be a smart move as the festival doubled in attendance from a last year. (My observation, not actual stats.)

Third step: divide the entire experience into only the main experience, trim the fat, and hope no one cares. There was never more than one band playing at any given time during the festival. If you want to see music you have one choice. The success comes from the fact that the "one choice" is always a great choice.

I had a really great time there over the weekend and feel lucky to have experienced it, but the whole time I had a nagging feeling of "something is missing."  

What was missing? The random-discovery was missing. The walking-by-a-small-stage-and-hearing-something-new-and-fun-and-deciding-to-check-it-out was missing. The up-and-coming-band-who-just-blows-people-away-and-suddenly-has-a-new-following was missing. The discovering-a-new-band-who-you'll-get-to-see-for-$5-three-months-later-and-hang-with-them-after-the-show was missing. The essence of discovery, one of the main reasons people attend festivals, was missing. 

The festival was banking on the fact that most will not care about this, but I kept thinking, "I do." 

On the other hand, I heard many people say that Lockn' is their favorite festival and there's good reason for that. The collection of national talent, and cross band jamming, rivals the initial years of Bonnaroo, and takes place in the gorgeous Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains. Seeing your favorite artists play inspired, collaborative music in such a beautiful setting should be, and probably will be, a winning combination for years to come.

Overall we had a great experience. We camped in the car camping area and split half our time in general admission and half the time backstage watching the massive production efforts it takes to put on an event.  

WSMFP for their Sunday dusk set

Here's a rundown of my highlights:

Thursday September 4

The Wood Brothers:  My first time seeing them after spending countless hours listening to their albums, and they lived up to it all!  These guys are the real deal and they can hang with larger productions of national acts.

Oliver Wood  (Photo by G Milo Farineau)

I want to thank G. Milo Farineau for the use of his amazing photos!  You can find him here.

Lettuce:  They are led by the jazz-based guitarist Eric Krasno and are easily one of the hottest instrumental bands out there.  Their jazz/funk combination is driven by drummer Adam Deitch who can make a drum machine look sloppy.  One of those bands that just make everyone move.  

Umphrey's McGee: This band exists both in and out of the jam-band world. Their audience comes from the jam-band scene, but their music is tight and very coherent.  Their rendition of Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" was sonic perfection and played with that special Gilmore-touch that few guitarists can ever achieve.

String Cheese: Possibly the MVP of Lockn. These guys seemed to really enjoy being on-stage all 4 sets and were focused and energetic the entire time.

Friday September 5
People's Blues of Richmond: The local boys who won the fan vote to play the festival.  They put on a great set and had no problem getting the early crowd engaged with them and filling up the massive stage with their raucous 3-piece sound.

Tauk: One of the few bands that will benefit the most from new people seeing them.  They, like Lettuce, are completely instrumental, and also like Lettuce, are not hindered by that fact.

Bill Kreutzmann's Locknstep All-Stars:  Unfortunately this set lived up to my expectations. Perfunctory renditions of Dead's originals and cover songs. Appearances by Keller Williams on "They Love Each Other" and "Bird Song," and Taj Mahal on "Stagger Lee" helped, but were not enough to kick the set into new or exciting territory.  Papa Mali singing "Wharf Rat" should just be stricken from the record.

String Cheese: Again, the highlight of the day as they played around with solid, earth-shattering funk grooves and let Kang soar over top.  Sam Bush sat in with his fiddle on "Colorado Bluebird Sky."

Phil and Friends: I've spoken to enough seasoned dead-heads to confirm that it wasn't just me, this set was one of the biggest disappointments in the whole festival.  No energy, everyone just going through the motions. Last year the Further set was one of the absolute highlights, but this year's Phil and Friends just wasn't working.

Saturday September 6
I had to drive to Charlotte for a BDL gig so I missed all of this, but I got credible reports that the Steve Winwood/Panic set was one of the best sets of the entire festival.
I heard mixed reports about Tom Petty. Some saying it was a great show, and others saying that it wasn't very energetic or engaging.

Sunday September 7
Grace Potter: She's the true rock-star of the whole festival. She put on an amazing show and had a very moving tribute to Brian Farmer, who passed away this week and was Warren Hayne's right hand man for many years. She spoke about being a brand new band touring with Gov't Mule and how amazing Farmer was back then, and how the crews of these festivals are the true all-stars.  Her solo rendition of "I Shall Be Released" was heart-wrenching. Here is a youtube clip of the tail end of the tribute and their renditions of "Released" and "I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends"

Willie Nelson: Putting Willie after Grace Potter was probably a mistake in hind-site as Willie's shows can be a little anti-climatic to begin with. But Willie is a living legend, a musical genius, and a bucket-list show for many people.

Allman Brothers: Many of us were here for this very moment. The Brothers are wrapping up their last tour of their 45 year career as the two guitarists, Warren and Derek, have announced their desire to bow out gracefully. Greg's health issues are also starting to overtake his ability to work.  As of now this was the last outdoor show they will ever play together. The first thing we noticed as all seven of them walked out were wearing matching t-shirts with Brian Farmer's face and both hands giving the famous one finger salute. Further testament to how much Brian Farmer meant to all these famous, successful musicians.

The Bros started out by playing the legendary album "At Fillmore East" in its entirety:

1. Statesboro Blues
2. Done Somebody Wrong
3. Stormy Monday
4. You Don't Love Me
5. Hot 'Lanta
6. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
7. Whipping Post.

Then followed up with:
Midnight Rider
Mountain Jam > Blue Sky > Little Martha > Mountain Jam

Overall it was a great show, with only a few moments of the elder Brothers, Greg and the drummers, losing their place in the songs.  But the energy, soul, and drive of the early band were still very present with Derek and Warren channeling the essence of Duane Allman's passion for soul, R&B, and gritty southern rock and roll.

You can't be a part of the southern music scene without standing at the foot of the Allman Brothers' altar. For a band to exist 45 years and have so many figurative deaths and rebirths is unheard of. They're one of the most popular rock and roll bands to have ever lived, but yet, in my opinion, they are still underrated. So much of this festival exists because of Garcia and The Grateful Dead, but yet in the end we all turned to the greatest southern rock band of all time and watched them show us how it is truly done, all while wearing t-shirts in memorial to a man who was rarely ever seen onstage. It was a great moment, and for any critiques I've made above it will be moments like these that keep the festival magic alive.

Here's to all the hardworking crew members that make these great experiences happen.  RIP Brian Farmer.

Farmer ready to solve any issue that comes up.

If you've made it this far you should sign up for Lonesome Banjo updates and that will encourage more posts, I do enjoy the feedback. It encourages me more than you'll ever know.  Thanks Y'all!

Brian

Why "Wagon Wheel" deserves the Grammy

A few days ago the song "Wagon Wheel" won a Grammy.  I'm here to say that no other song has deserved a Grammy more in the past several decades, at least.   It's not because it is the best song that has been written in the last 30 years, even though it is and always has been a great song.  But there is no other song that has traveled such an amazing path throughout its lifetime as this one.  It is the Indiana Jones of songs, traveling though the past and present, through all walks of societal and economic sub-strata of American life.  From the top musical pantheon to a lowly street musician; from Mexico to London to the dirt roads of Watauga County, NC and the bedazzled belt buckles of Music City, USA; from the in-the-know Americana underground to the trodden low-hanging-fruit of paparazzi proportions in the American zeitgeist--"Wagon Wheel" has touched them all.

Forget for a moment the reality of the Grammy Awards, which mostly recognizes people who turn music into industrial algorithms for mass consumption and mass profits.  Instead, imagine the ideological nugget that wants to recognize something great, something special, and something beautiful. The partial-life, death, and rebirth of "Wagon Wheel" is the antithesis of such deserved recognition.

The song began this journey as an out-take of the soundtrack to the 1973 movie, "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid."   It only survived because some bootleggers realized it was a hidden gem from Dylan that had never been recorded or performed.  The chorus was fully realized, but the lyrics are unintelligible.  Here it is:

After decades in the bootleggers' underground, one of the guys from Old Crow Medicine Show found a copy while visiting London and brought it back to Ketch Secor, fiddler and singer of Old Crow, who then wrote the verses. 

I first met the guys from Old Crow Medicine Show in Boone, NC when they were the house band for Tweetsie Railroad, a minor tourist attraction in the mountains of NC.  They were all living together, with their pet pig, in a house in rural Watauga County and were on the verge of being fired for the rank smell of unwashed clothes.  It was around the same time they got an offer to come to Nashville and appear on the Grand Ole Opry, where their career took off.   (A friend of mine says that they were not able to take their pig, so they killed it and ate it.  This may or may not be true.)

The track "Wagon Wheel" was the last song on their debut album, and was quickly picked up as a highlight.  A lot of people probably heard it for the first time from Gillian Welch and David Rawlings (Rawlings was producer of their album) when they would encore with it.   As the album spread through the old-time/bluegrass/Americana music scene, people started playing it more often.   For many years it was nothing more than a really great song.

Here's Old Crow's version, with its 22 million views on YouTube.  

Then there was a shift, and we all noticed it.  If you had a fiddle or banjo onstage people who appeared to have no interest in old-time fiddle music started coming up and asking for the "Rock Me Mama" song.  To this day I still have no idea how it made that leap from underground Americana to popular culture, but it did. 

The song that started as a bootleggers out-take from 1973 went to London, came back to the NC mountains, consumed the old-time/bluegrass scene, and then became a #1 country hit and #15 Billboard Hot 100 hit in 2013 deserves a Grammy.  It deserves a life-time achievement award of the highest magnitude.

The frustration you see from musicians being asked to play the song is never about it being a bad song.  The frustration comes from two sources, one of which is that the song is just way overplayed.  The other, less noticeable, issue is that old-time and bluegrass deserve better than to be boiled down to one song.  Those genres of music are lush with history and virtuosic beauty which can take a lifetime to master. They deserve more effort by the listener than to just be aware of a single song. 

All that aside, "Wagon Wheel" is a beautiful song with an amazing history.  I will steal a line from one of my most influential music teachers, Dr. Unsworth, when he spoke of special songs: "It's a great song.  Don't you wish you had written it?" 

How one short story led to a new friend, inspiration, and 3 new books, in one night.

A special experience that is worth sharing...

As we walked up to the entrance of Cafe Nola in Frederick, MD I noticed the sound coming from the open front door was different.  This wasn't the sound of small groups of people sitting at tables and enjoying dinner; no, this was louder, more energetic, like near the end of a wedding reception with an open bar.  We walked in and saw a table set up by the door with two girls attending it, obviously checking people in with name tags.  We graciously smiled as we walked by them, not feeling a need to explain why we were just walking into their private party.  The place was at capacity with everyone standing and talking with drinks in their hand.  Whatever function was happening was in full swing.  We were two hours away from needing to set up our gear so we found an empty tall table with stools in the corner and put our food order in. 

I knew the bathroom was on the complete other side of the building and I would have to squeeze through about 10 separate groups of people in tight circles chatting, so I decided to make a proactive move for once and do this before the food came.  As I was walking back, alternating between trying to make myself small to squeeze through, but also actively pushing my way through the small gaps of light between people with the perfunctory, " sorry...sorry..excuse me," I noticed a small rack of local rags and papers near the door.  I'm not sure why I grabbed the most simple looking one there, just a folded piece of white paper with a black and white drawing up top and words upon words below.  Maybe it was because there were no advertisements anywhere to be seen on it, and the possibility of finding something without a commercial interest is always welcome.  Or maybe the title "The Stone Bird" was just interesting enough that it was worth the chance of finding out more.  Either way, that's the one I took back to the table to break me out of the habit of just scrolling through mindless posts as we wait on our food.  If you ever see a table of five guys paying attention to anything but each other, and most likely their smartphones, then there's a good chance they're a band that has just ridden 7 hours in a tiny van with each other and feel no need to make small talk to pass the time.  Tired of small talk and tired of the phone, I wanted something else engaging.

The writing started off...not weird, but just peculiar -- birds who want to fly into space and then quickly got into some scientific history of the albatross.   Were these just ramblings?  A study of schizophrenic albatross birds? I didn't know, and I could feel my attention starting to wander away.  I looked up and scanned the room for any other alternatives but quickly remembered why I picked up this paper in the first place, so I kept reading.  Then something happened, a little nugget of wisdom was dropped into the story from nowhere.  A little phrase or idea that caught me by surprise and made me think, "Wait, could this be good?"  Little did I know that I would be leaving there with a new friend, inspiration, and three free books.

The story of the Stone Bird follows two albatross who are life partners but are not able to conceive during the annual mating, a reproduction ritual that takes place on a special island every year.  The female makes a rash decision to use a small round rock and tell her partner that this year she has finally laid an egg just like all the other couples.  Through sheer volition of true love, this rock hatches into a stone bird and now they have a family.  I couldn't stop reading this story.  Every paragraph had a tiny little nugget of wisdom, much like my favorite author Tom Robbins.  Writing like this is special, and the chances of my discovering something like this in a quaint little town in Maryland were quite surprising.

I finished the story, and little did I know that my story with this experience was just beginning.  At the end of the story there was a simple little postscript of "My name is Goodloe Byron.  If you like the story email me....."   It hit me then that whoever wrote this story published this little paper by themselves and left them in places like this, cafes and restaurants, for people to discover.  No advertisements, no sales offers, no asking of money, just a small request for acknowledgment.  That's it.  The simplicity and beauty of this deal was too much to ignore, and I pulled out my phone and shot him a quick email just saying, "Hey, I loved your story.  Thank you."  I know from traveling around playing music that the smallest things like that can make a huge difference in the day for someone baring their soul through their art. 

This small little sample of independent writing had me fired up, to be completely honest, so that when I found some friends that we met our first time here, I quickly described how I came to the story and how much I liked it.  They both laughed and said, "That's Goodloe.  Everyone in town knows him.  He'll be here tonight."  They told me that he's also a musician and visual artist, and you know you're a Frederick local when he draws a picture of you.  So not only have I discovered a beautiful story but I'm going to meet the author soon.  A mental image appeared of what this guy might look like and if I could recognize him.  I'm sure he'll be the most outlandishly dressed person here...obviously.  Bright colored pants, some type of fedora-esque hat with feathers around it, or maybe even a Native American vibe with amulets and pieces of bone hanging from all points.   A few minutes later an average looking guy with moderately short hair and a cropped beard stood in front of me in jeans and a brown jacket.  Just a normal looking dude.  My friends said, "Hey, this is Goodloe."

Goodloe with Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy

"I just sent you an email about 20 mins ago," I said.    He laughed and said, "That was you?"  I was reading it on my way here and it really made my night, thank you."   We didn't talk long since he had to get to an open-mic night to perform, but he said he would be back for the end of our show.  We finished playing and he came up and handed me three of his self-published books, "Here you go, I hope you like them. You guys sounded awesome."

Not a lot else was said.  We'd both experienced each other's art, and it felt like a mutual respect had settled in that didn't need to be strengthened through banal small talk.  With tools like Facebook in today's world, you don't need to make as much initial effort to stay in touch.  If there's someone you want to keep in touch with then you will: it's simple.  

It is amazing what can happen when you follow your gut and just reach out to a stranger and say, "I appreciate your work."  Every now and then a whole new world might be opened up to you.  Not always, but when it does it is pretty special and worth the effort.  I'm several chapters into one of his books and love it so far.

This was a really special experience that I felt honored to be a part of.    

Goodloe is sending me some copies of his Stone Bird story.  So, if you're interested in reading it, find me and ask.  
Here's a link to the visual arts of Goodloe
ART BY GOODLOE BYRON.    

The amazing physiological effects of being in nature

Shinrin-yoku is a Japanese term that translates to "forest bathing."  It's the process of immersing yourself into nature for massive and very measurable stress-relieving effects.  These effects have been confirmed by researchers throughout the world on a consistent basis, and include stress and anxiety reductions as well as boosts in creativity.  Since the Japanese are some of the most stressed and over-worked people in the world, it makes sense that they are avidly studying ways to combat this silent killer before it overtakes their society.

Everyone has an idea that taking a long hike, or even a short walk, in the woods is relaxing, but the new science behind what actually happens to us is quite amazing.  I first heard a story on NPR about this a few years ago -- a neuroscientist was explaining how new parts of the brain light up when someone is interacting with nature.  My first thought when listening to this was, "Of course it does." We have thousands of years of physiological evolution completely immersed and connected with nature, so our brains reacting in powerful ways when we reconnect really shouldn't surprise anyone. 

One of the leading researchers on the positive physiological impacts of nature, Miyazaki, a physiological anthropologist and vice director of Chiba University’s Center for Environment, Health, and Field Sciences, has found when his test participants spend time walking and relaxing in the woods without being tethered to any electronics, they yield a 12.4 percent decrease in the stress hormone cortisol, a seven percent decrease in sympathetic nerve activity, a 1.4 percent decrease in blood pressure, and a 5.8 percent decrease in heart rate.  Reductions in the negatives aren't the only findings; on the positive side, they've also found significant gains in both attention span and creativity. They've also found the effects to have a lasting impact as people go back to their daily lives. 

Researchers in the U.S. are finding the same results, and I've started wondering if our two cultures will treat this new scientific knowledge in the same way.  As Americans, we manipulate data for maximum results, so we'll tweak our city's green-spaces for maximum nature benefits to keep our workers healthy and alive.  But the Japanese culture comes from a deeper sense of interconnectedness that we Americans just don't have -- hence the idea of shinrin-yoku.  So instead of just having lunch in a city park, the Japanese are spending days forest bathing.  We should follow their lead here.

From a conservationist standpoint, our countries having stressed out workers can be a blessing in disguise.  As the money is trickling in for further research, we might get a foothold on a tangible reason to start protecting our wild and natural areas -- you know, other than the fact that we just should!   There is nothing more urgent than the current state of our oceans right now.  What most people do not realize is if our oceans die, then we die.  Human life is not sustainable on this planet with dead oceans, and we already have massive dead-zone areas, one of the largest being in the Gulf of Mexico below New Orleans.   

Dead Zone in the Gulf

Wallace J. Nichols, who volunteers for the National Academy of Science in San Francisco, is working tirelessly to find grant money to study the same calming affects of our oceans.  Again, this seems like a no-brainer as most of us choose an ocean setting for a relaxing vacation, or simply enjoy a small aquarium;  but having the actual science behind it is what moves the money to clean and protect it.  It is not enough to just know that we love the ocean, but knowing why and how we love the ocean can give us more leverage in funding protection.  This actually falls in line with the current advancements into moral psychology that show us moral intuition and emotions come before strategic reasoning.   It turns out that the Scottish philosopher, David Hume (1711-1776), was correct when he said we are ruled by our emotions and not our rationalization, as Plato (427 BC-347 BC) posited.  Knowing this, we can approach conservatism through our emotional connections, as opposed to just hitting people with facts and reason.  Think of a coach's pre-game speech to his team: successful speeches come from a basic emotional level of pride, camaraderie, trust, and desire, not a rational breakdown of winning percentages.  If we start connecting nature to our intuitive morals and emotions then we will be more successful at conserving her. 

I was thinking about the activities that mean the most to me and I realized that one of the things that most of them have in common is they are immune from the invasion of advertisements.  This could even be a good rule of thumb--spend more time doing things that are immune to advertisements.  Maybe advertisements are like weird chemical names in food labels--the more there are, the worse it is.  But on the other hand, there are a lot of really great writers out there doing great work who make a living because ads surround their work, so it isn't that simple.

Either way, we are learning how we need nature, forests, and the oceans, not to just stay alive, but to also stay healthy and happy.  Exploring the scientific basis of how they affect our emotions will hopefully steer us in the right direction of conservation, and not just speedy corporate manipulation with an industrial psychology slant.  I'm cheering this research on, as all the people working their asses off on the front lines trying to reverse the dead zones in the oceans and reverse the steep animal extinction rate and deforestation rate need all the support they can get.