You Have the Power to Negate
Funkadelic - If You Don't Like the Effects, Don't Produce the Cause
Hello internet pals of music. Been a long time, as the song goes. The end of 2021 brought some life changes for your intrepid musical sherpa (or to put it bluntly: I had serious shit to do), but thanks for staying true so that we could reconvene here in our digital parish, today, tomorrow and beyond. Now let’s get into it.
Outside, a rhythm section of scraping and banging fills the soundscape, along with the voices of children, as neighbours up and down the block are clearing last night’s snow from the sidewalks. It’s white and crisp outside, with the sun’s beams bouncing off the soft pure surface.
Last night, he stood under a streetlight with a cigarette burning between his fingers, watching it happen; it was cold and icy, and the snow danced with thousands of glistening crystals.
Things are always changing.
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A new year always seems to be the time people want to change. Change from themselves, as if the calendar will reset them as well as the clock. But we never look at that the same way as when people are forced to change because they’ve hit rock bottom, or they’ve done something irreversible and have to pick up the pieces. Reconcile within themselves as well as with the world. Even if the goals are the same, resolving to do or be better. Somehow the new year makes it seem more proactive, even though it’s still a reaction to disappointment.
As a kid, whenever he’d do something like stub his toe, his father would reply “Don’t do that, it hurts”. Yet somehow, he’d still drag his feet when he walked.
It’s the kind of advice you hate when you’re on the receiving end of it. But it’s the difference between controlled and control.
Situation is just that
It has no special powers
to do you harm
It’s your reactions that count
There are no forces in league against you, even if Mark E Smith sings it true.
Everything we do, we make the choice to do; or it gets made for us by not doing anything. Either way, everything changes, eternally and insistently.
Maybe tonight, as he stands out under the streetlight watching the ice fairies try to dance in the dirty snow, he’ll do it without the cigarette, thinking of his father.
Don’t do that, it hurts.
SERMONS! is brought to you by Jamie Ward, a multidisciplinary artist currently somewhere in North America. You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram. Like what you’re hearing? Help spread the word!
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