this is a post that, for many of you, has already awakened your senses to Wynton Marsalis and Rev. Jeremiah Wright laying it down about "Premature Autopsies." this piece, written by Stanley Crouch, became an integral part of my disciplined academic growth while at the university of michigan...and i have been thinking a great deal about one of the lines that always stuck with me.
"These are the ones who follow in the footsteps of the gifted and the disciplined who have been deeply hurt but not discouraged, who have been frightened but have not forgotten how to be brave, who revel in the company of their friends and sweethearts but are willing to face the loneliness that is demanded of mastery."
mastery demands a serious willingness to walk alone...and for me, this is an ongoing process/challenge of engaging and disengaging for a purpose - because one cannot apply mastery if the cost is forgetting the rest of this brilliant description.
Well there's another thing we have in common. That's my favorite album by Wynton, and I have played that song over and over and over. I practically have it memorized.
"There are some of us who do not accept the dreams of dragons as their own, no matter how grand those dragons might say they are."
First ran across the lyrics in a track by Ludovic Llorca.
http://www.emp3world.com/to_download.php?id=33002
It is my official theme song.
Posted by: P6 at August 15, 2005 01:35 AMcobb,
our list of commonalities is growing...
lks, i'll check that piece out...my thanks to mr. walton...you're both right, at the bottom of it all is that sojourn of the ONE with the self to the bottom of it all - and there will be no company along for the right, no tutors, no mentors, no friends, no enemies - just you and who you believe you are and who you shall remain or who will become.
Posted by: Temple3 at August 15, 2005 08:29 AMWhile the "self-mastery" line was tantamount to a clarion call, a line that I always felt was equally formidable was the line, "...and when you swallow that dragon dust cooperatively you reveal yourself as a chump, a sucker..." In these politically challenging times, it seems that many folk do so quite willingly. The resonance of this entire work is truly remarkable.
Posted by: bibtecario at August 15, 2005 04:33 PM
Have you ever read THE HERO AND THE BLUES? Donnell dropped it on me. Reading this was one of the things that took me beyond ideology--beyond nationalism. At some point you've got to go to the woodshed by yourself, deal with your fears, your frailties, and over come them.
And no vision of blackness will take you through it.
Posted by: Lester Spence at August 13, 2005 11:15 PM