Why/how did you start singing?
I don't know. I'm told by my parents I was about 3. It just felt right. I just did it.
The relevance of this is that it seemed to come through me, without much conscious choice or say on my part. Sure, I was 3 years old and how much conscious choice do we have at 3 years? Or if we do have conscious choice, do we even remember?
But this leads us to another under-the-radar controversy. Should an individual be solely credited for their creative expression and work?
Who else would you credit? Well, I've said on occasion that I don't know where my gift of singing or songwriting comes from. It just seems to be innate within me. Sure, I took piano lessons and I've taken a handful of singing lessons in my life. I've practiced and studied music theory. I've even broken down, analyzed and learned some of my favorite songs. But all of this has come easier for me than most others (though not as easy as for some as well...I was probably more like a demi-prodigy). Why?
I don't know. All I know is, it never really felt like work. It always felt like slipping into a shoe that always fit - never needed breaking in or a cobbler or a different size.
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, talks about this very thing in her TED Talk and she reminded me that in ancient Rome and Greece they didn't give credit to the human artist, but rather to their damon or genius as it was called, who sort of channeled through the artist their creative work. This gave the artist some respite from too much credit and too much responsibility for failure.
I like that. Not because I'm shy about taking credit for my art, and definitely not because I'm reluctant to take responsibility for my failures - sometimes I take too much responsibility! I like this because it frees up the individual to be in the flow of their credit expression without as much weight on their shoulders. And anyone who's been in creative flow knows there seems to be something else....some other presence or will or force filling our sails as we do our thing.
The title of this blog, Like Asking Someone to Swallow the Sun is from the talk. Elizabeth says that's what it's like, putting all the responsibility of creativity on one human psyche is "like asking someone to swallow the sun." It struck me, so I made it my title.
Check out the video and let me know what you think. I was amused, intrigued and relieved. Thanks, Elizabeth Gilbert. Give yourself about 20 minutes to watch the video.
One last note that will make sense after you see the video. When I was a kid, I'd get song ideas - melodies or lyrics - while walking home from my elementary school. So as not to loose the idea, I'd either hum or sing the song quietly to myself or in my head the rest of the walk home, or I'd run home as fast as possible so I could get it down quickly. These days the way home always seemed longer than other days. Incidentally, the walk from my school to home was probably 3/4 mile, or in kid terms, about 8-10 minutes.
Enjoy!
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