September 3, 2013 - Basking Ridge, New Jersey. My old Bard College friend Per Sundgren used to live near here (Per, if you are reading this, apologies for not calling - rushing to DC for meetings...). Per was part of the experience of Schuyler House - once a housing dorm of the College. A number of us chose to move off campus that year. We started at Schuyler and then four of us went further on to Rock City the following year. I learned about physics that year and began to shift back and forth in my loyalties to specific "Alaska" issues. That was the year I realized that being a caricature of an Alaskan wasn't going to cut it. The myth of the wild Northerner gave way to the reasoned speculation and inquiry of a person who was learning that the "East Coast" wasn't the enemy, it was just another part of America.
Since then I've been able to see so much of the country. Every state and so many roads and highways, small towns and rural hearts, urban landscapes and the grit of hard scrapple lives carved from the wildernesses we find in both rural and urban environments. It is a country full of contradictions and passions that are often stoked by those who seek to gain an advantage of others by using the hardships that have shaped so many to enflame them against each other. Complex thought, that, but I think true. We risk so much of who we are when we stop looking at those who live with us as just other aspects of America, and start to see them as an enemy that must be defeated at all costs. It hurts us, it diminishes us.
Now we debate another war with a new "other". What is the point of this? It is ill-conceived. I especially find it hard to be one of those who would cheer on this story, given how critical I was of the last one. An Administration official presents facts to the UN, a drum is beat loudly and we act. In this case perhaps there will be hesitation when Congress votes. Perhaps they will reject the President's call to arms? I don't know, but I do know that he is likely to ignore a "No" vote. So then what do we have? I guess we are best left to discuss that when we get to that bridge. Or, as I have often said, "that is a bridge we will burn when we get to it..."
And the recording? The sessions with Dennis Lind went very, very well. Still much to do, but 14 songs have been recorded with my vocal and guitar tracks and some additional work as well. I am excited and will post more soon. But now, back on the road.