How a Decade of Momentum Built and Gave Out
I've often said that I have always done what I've done because of sheer momentum. Sure, I try to move cautiously in life. I once said while in the middle of a particularly altered state of mind, sitting on the rocky shore of a lake, certain that a part of my consciousness could travel through time, that if I could make it here to this place to tell the story, surely it must have all worked out in the end. I forgot that I was still living in the story that I was yet to tell. I forgot that the telling of the story is an element of the story. I forgot that the telling of the story, like all other elements in life, takes up the currency of time. At a certain point, I realized that I had locked myself into writing about jazz music. I knew long ago that I was lazy, but also that I could find a way to reframe things well. It's a habit common of writers, those of us who have a way of using communication, a thing nearly all of humankind is able to do, and find a way to make such...
