Back. And on the make. 02.02.2009
I know,
I know. I said I'd write and I didn't. I don't even have a good excuse.
I've had time, God knows. I'm a bad man. But I missed a couple of publishing
cycles, and started to think, "why even bother?" Then, I think,
I was just beaten down by the barrage of bad news in the last 4 months.
Lately however, there have been three news stories on my mind that have
renewed my interest in writing and music. I hope you'll indulge me if
I share them and some of my thoughts in this new GreenHouse Emission.
The next Emission will be back to upcoming shows, gigs and records. But
for now, I hope you'll take the time to read this editorial.
Story #1:
Listening to NPR in early December, as I was thinking about the Bank and
Auto industries' respective bailouts, I was particularly incensed to hear
the Big Three Auto Makers refer to themselves as the "arsenal of
democracy" when, in fact, they provide very little to support troops
in the field. In contrast, two brothers in Maine have built a remote controlled
tank for the Army in their garage, funded by their day jobs. The Ripsaw
is an unmanned remote controlled tank that is amazingly fast, easily repaired
and built on a tubular chassis based on NASCAR construction principles.
Mike and Geoff Howe are twin brothers who, throughout their lives have
been experimenting, inventing and building all kinds of things. Now, that
intellectual curiosity may just pay off. You can hear the full interview
with Public Radio's Dick Gordon on "This
is the story"
The US army has now provided them with some funding and their tank has
passed tests with flying colors. Now, no matter what you thing about defense
spending and the military industrial complex, let's at least agree that
the kinds of wars we fight now are different. No armadas of battleships
and no squadrons of multimillion-dollar planes. We need different weapons
and tools for different wars. The innovation to develop those tools will
unlikely come from organizations who have a vested interest in continuing
to develop old monolithic weapon systems. That innovation may come from
people like the Howe brothers.
Story #2:
In October 2008, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was won by Roger Y. Tsien
and Martin Chalfie for their development of a revolutionary technique
that lights up the inner workings of living cells. Each scientist will
collect $450,000 in recognition. All good stuff. Even more interesting
(I thought) is that the lynchpin of their work was research conducted
by Douglas Prasher, a former scientist who now drives a courtesy car for
a Toyota dealership in Huntsville, Alabama.
Having
wrestled with depression throughout his professional career, Prasher has
been unfailingly gracious through the whole story, He admits that his
life has been a "hard luck story", generously provided his research
to Tsien and Chalfie and commended them on their great work. He's also
commented on his bouts of depression and the solitary nature of scientific
research, suggesting that working alone does not help those prone to such
issues. He's also remarked how much he enjoys driving the courtesy car
because he "gets to talk to people" and was surprised at how
much he enjoys those interactions.
Perhaps
not coincidentally, I heard this story on the same day I heard a research
piece on how daily interactions with people are contagious in terms of
happiness, Happiness is contagious through physical interactions (but
not so much via phone, email, or social networking sites), whereas sadness
is not. This study of 5000 people over 20 years has shown that in a social
network (or at a party, for example) people at the center of the network
are generally happier. You can catch happiness from other people, but
you can only catch sadness from yourself.
In
December, Tsien and Chalfie flew Prasher and his wife out to the Nobel
ceremony in Stockholm, where they acknowledged his work from the podium.
Think: the ending of 'A Beautiful Mind' only without the imaginary friends.
Or maybe not.
Story #3:
The writer Hal Niedzviecki recently wrote a piece for the New York Times
in which he describes how, despite accumulating over 700 Facebook friends,
he felt more alone than he ever had before. So he decided to throw a 'Facebook
Friend' party at a local bar. He invited all 700 friends. 15 friends said
"Definitely Attending," 60 friends said "Maybe Attending,"
200 friends said "Not Attending." The rest ignored the invitation.
How many actually showed up? One. A woman who didn't know him personally,
but had noticed Niedzviecki connecting to a friend of hers on Facebook.
Looking at these stories individually, here are my broad takeaways:
- Our ideas and inspirations have value - they're worth pursuing. Our spirit for innovation is diminished but not extinguished. True innovation comes from bedrooms, garages and basements, not boardrooms, governments and laboratories.
- Being around other people is just a lot more fun than being on your own. We probably all need some of both, but too much of either is just plain unhealthy.
- Having 700 'friends' on Facebook means nothing if none of them will come meet you for a pint on a school night when you really need it most. Assuming your have plenty of friends because you're popular on Facebook is like saying you're an expert tennis player because you play it on the Nintendo Wii all the time. It's not the same.
Perhaps though, in the context of everything going on in the economy,
these three stories have resonated with me because they're about what's
'real'; making
real things, making real friends and making a real difference.
The things
we once thought were guaranteed (corporate profits, job security, hedge
fund returns, real estate appreciation, Facebook friends) just weren't.
They never were. Death and taxes aside, one guarantee we all have living
in the U.S. is that we get a chance to try and try again - opportunity,
but without the guarantee of success. That's the way it's always been;
over the years we've grown to assume that we're entitled to success rather
than opportunity. Sorry. What we are entitled to is to give it a shot
- which might not seem like much to you but, take it from me, it's more
than most of the world gets.
For my part, I'm resurrecting the GreenHouse Emission, writing more, playing
out more, working on the new (delayed) CD and getting out of my solo recording
studio to work with other musicians. I don't know how it's going to work
out, but I'll keep trying.
Tom Petty tells a story of a music critic complaining to him that Bob
Dylan's new work wasn't as good as "the old stuff", expecting
Petty to wholeheartedly agree. Petty's response was "Well, he's still
doing something, what are you doing?"
Maybe that's
really what's really been on my mind.