Living Locally

If this stream of consciousness is too random for you, it is not my fault. A group of my friends visited the Everett Brothers’ Bluegrass Barn this past weekend at the behest of Mr. Beadlemania and his lovely wife. My lovely wife and I couldn’t stay too long due to our even lovelier daughter’s inability to stop crying. However, those few minutes did get my mind to thinking.

Why do we spend so much of our time amusing ourselves with things that do not edify? I suppose that could be a trick question. The word amuse means not to muse, meaning further, to not engage our minds. Now, this is no philologist’s painstaking etymology of the word but it gets to the gist of it. Our entertainments today, our leisure time, is spent far too often on things that simply do not matter, things that do not enrich our lives or those of others.

My first thought after entering the barn was that this place had a reality about it, an earthiness, that just doesn’t come across (can’t come across) in most high-priced concerts featuring mega-stars. The reason for this was that it was local. The musicians were just guys from the area with day jobs or retired from day jobs. In their leisure time, they like to get together and jam and to take you along with them. They’re not the least bit concerned with the latest fad, fashion, or latest pop culture phenomenon that has the staying power of a vapor. They’re too busy interacting with standards and passing on tradition.

Anyway, I starting thinking of my group of friends. We have enough musicians among us (though I am clearly not one) to simply get together and sing and play. They can drown me out. Why don’t we do that for “entertainment”? If we did, we could probably forgo a baby-sitter and pass down some traditions ourselves.