December 2011

Lights shine through the darkness like stars, leading up a tree that once was believed to be sacred because it could live through the winter, to one larger star at the top. A family that usually watches TV every night now sits around this tree, in a room they rarely go into, reminiscing while flipping through old pictures. The radio sings Christmas songs and even though we can’t stand the cheesy monologs from the radio host Delilah, we listen and make fun of her… every year. The world doesn’t reach past our living room tonight. This is what we do, there is nothing to question, yet this year I find myself picking this tranquility apart.

Where did these traditions come from, what do they symbolize, and why do I find myself so attached to them? Do traditions become such because they have meaning or do we assign the meaning to them?

Tradition: the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation

I have found various stories about the origins of the holiday traditions we follow. The most commonly accepted documentation puts the birth of the Christmas tree in Germany around the 15^th century. People would put apples on trees to represent the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden and wafers to represent the body of Christ. Later candles were used to decorate trees to represent the spirit of Christ. The type of evergreen used was selected because of its shape; the triangle was viewed as a representation of the trinity. An evergreen, being a tree that can live through the winter, also represented life. One can see the connection between the selection of this tree and the meaning of the holiday.

I think the simple answer to why the traditions of Christmas are so important to ME is that they all involve the gathering of family. To dig deeper, I think it involves the desire to make my parents happy. As the holiday approaches the excitement from them can fill a room. They want to see us hang ornaments on the tree, stockings from the fireplace, and wake up with an eagerness to see what’s under the tree. It could be because their families instilled the importance of carrying on these traditions, but I think it has more to do with our family staying the same; A way to freeze time in a world that spins too fast too often. The dynamic of our family has changed over the years. Family vacations now involve planning around four people’s schedules instead of two. Doing the things that came natural when we were younger now involve a great deal of planning and sacrifice, however, we all know that when Christmas comes we will be together and happy.

As the years go on and we start our own families we will most likely not be able to spend every holiday together. The desire to make my parents happy will be replaced by the desire to make my children happy. The tradition of being together, no matter how it is executed, will be carried on.

[slideshow]

Charles Elmore Myers, my grandfather, is a natural storyteller. He is the type of person that will make friends with anyone, and given enough time, share his life story with great detail. So I decided to point a camera at him and give you the opportunity to virtually share a room with one of the most prominent male figures in my life. In this first chapter he describes being born and growing up on a farm in the depression with five siblings and a father who fell victim to the misfortune of dire times.

“We were dirt poor people but my father had a good profession, it’s just that things weren’t working out for him right away.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPsMO74VOgE&list=UUgzATdvfWHzH14eytNfpDiw&index=1&feature=plcp]

As Christmas approaches and we go out to buy gifts for the ones we love, he describes how his family came together to make the holiday possible.

“It might have been when I was 4 or 5… my brothers went out through garbage cans scavenging for broken toys and things like that. They came back, painted them, repaired them and whatnot, and that’s where Christmas came from for sis and I… our older brothers got it out of garbage cans, and that wasn’t too uncommon.”

The next chapter will start with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the impact it had on the family.

I hope people play my new album, when we finally put it out, like I have been playing L’Orange’s new project Old Soul. Every song on this instrumental tape samples Billie Holiday, one of LO’s biggest influences. The more I get to know him the more I see that influence.

“I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That’s all I know.” -Billie Holiday

LO is different. He has a lane of his own, a style of his own, and a control over his craft that is rare. He and I talked frequently on skype while I was in Barranquilla, sharing music and bouncing ideas off each other. I didn’t understand every beat he sent me, or every reference he made, but that’s why I enjoy talking to him and listening to his music. He is constantly challenging me.

“No two people on earth are alike, and it’s got to be that way in music or it isn’t music.” -Billie Holiday

Like it because it’s great, respect it because it’s unique, download it because your ears deserve something new… plus it’s free and today is his birthday! Download Old Soul here–> http://lorange.bandcamp.com/album/old-soul

Life is different now. It’s not better, it’s not worse, it’s just different. Things here in Chapel Hill are comfortable. My neighborhood is quiet, my bed is soft, and my friends still have the same numbers. My cat still can’t hear and my car still makes noises it shouldn’t. Nothing changed, and yet everything has.

The things that took months to adjust to when I first moved to Colombia are now strange to live without. The farmers riding past my window early every morning sitting on a cart pulled by a donkey and yelling avocado have been replaced by deer tiptoeing through my wooded backyard. The faint sound of the neighborhood watchman’s whistle as he patrolled the streets with his old dog every night has been replaced by ESPN highlights I already saw twice that day. Not better or worse, just different.    

I hope I don’t get any more used to packing up and leaving things behind as I already am. I have done it three times now in my adult life. I seem to get so wrapped up in the things I am doing at the moment I rarely miss something to the point it gets me sad. Writing can be dangerous because it makes that impossible, which is why I have avoided doing this until now.

Having said that, I am cherishing the time I am spending with my family right now. My mom, dad, brother and I are going to the gym, playing tennis, and going out to dinner together multiple times a week. I think our relationship is rare and extraordinary. I’m sure I will look back at this transitional phase of my life with a smile.

“Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten… making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful.” –Plato

My plan is to go back to graduate school and build off my experience of making music for educational purposes. I’m sitting here at a coffee shop across from my old elementary school with a stack of GRE vocabulary flash cards realizing… it’s okay that I didn’t master Spanish in the last year; I still got a lot of English to learn!  

I moved to another country, to a city where I knew no one, and built a life that was as rewarding as it was fun. Then, as fast as everything seemed to happen, I was gone. I hope my friends know that I will never lose contact with them, and I will come back to visit as often as I can. To all my musician friends, know that I didn’t bug you about making music all the time for personal gain. Pictures capture memories, songs do much more. A chapter written, a new chapter to write… characters that will live on forever.

[slideshow]