Always Resolved

Good conversation today about creative disciplines and how they can be crowded out by the rigorous demands of family life. I think back on the agony and indignation that would grip me when failing to maintain a creative discipline, be it musical, physical or literary. I was hard on myself, and as such, hard on my family in ways that weren’t helpful. So much of the past couple of months has been marked by an undisciplined laxity that has crept into almost all facets of life. Tonight, not so. 

It’s good to be aware, balance and forgiving when the demands of fatherhood naturally impinge upon art, writing, strength or music. That said, one must be similarly balanced, clear and composed when those demands are intense, but not necessarily prohibitive. Tonight, I’ve hit a few notes that make up the chord of a disciplined life. Not all of them, but most. 

We must be clear, balanced, yes; but sober and ever and always resolved, lest the multitudinous distractions and predilections that plague us turn us into the boorish, undisciplined and spiritually vacuous husks we always swore we’d never become.