Let’s Do This Thing!

I probably sound a little hesitant in this video and that is for good reason.

It is for the same reason that I have often felt hesitant, because I am constantly getting in over my head with a very big vision that I do not know how to bring into being but I am just so excited and determined that I decide I am going to do it anyway.

In this case, what I decided is: I need a container for the next leg of my journey. I need an actual structure that embodies what it is I am trying to do. Ten years of creation, this moment of creation - these phrases don’t really get to the heart of what it is that I am trying to do. So I established Legacy In Motion Media LLC.

The short story is that I am trying to last as a beautiful force in the park as long as I can and I am trying to find a good way to communicate what I have learned from this whole experience and I am trying to celebrate along the way with all the people that I love.

When I thought about it, when I tried to wrap myself around the whole thing, I had to admit two things:

One is that it is, in fact legacy that I am interested in perpetuating.

I have shied away from thinking in those terms. It sounds grandiose, and it sounds like what comes after my life is more important than what comes in the very next moment.

But the reality is that what has been created over the last 17 years is so large and miraculous that I would be missing a very large thing if I didn’t acknowledge it as an actual legacy.

Could it be more of a legacy? Yes, sure. Of course it could. That is the whole point. How much of a legacy can I make of this strange thing I have begun and become a part of?

The other thing I had to acknowledge is the uncanny sheer participation in my work that has turned it into a legacy.

A large part of it has rested on nothing but tips for my performances, after - I might add - a completely unsolicited gift of a cello from my friend, Laya, at a crucial time in my journey.

Another element has been the contributions folks have made at house concerts.

Still another has been the very whimsical trust with which people have turned over the money and the intimate details of their lives to commission a musical portrait, not once but seventy or eighty times. That has kept me going when nothing else could.

And another still are the crowd-fundings - to produce an album of William Stafford poetry - renditions with music, to upgrade my computer, to get through a brain surgery for my beloved L, and a hiatal hernia surgery for me and to get a new electric-assist bike. That doesn’t take into account the miraculous support of my local community here for the Beautiful Music In The Park project.

I think I may have used the word miraculous more than once now.

But this week, when I go out into the park, I can guarantee that what happens there will be immeasurably precious, involving little ones at the very beginning of their lives and old ones closer to the far end, and every possible size, shape, color and kind of human in between. Humanity at it’s most kind, most vulnerable, most tender and most resilient.

The legacy, as it turns out, isn’t even close to being just my legacy. It is every bit a legacy of this community in Ashland and of this country of America writ large. It extends back to the original people who lived there. It is part of the history of the women of Ashland who recognized the need for a park and insisted on it. It is being written into the culture of this country as we speak, in the midst of all the upheaval, all the questions, all the fears.

So I know I will get better, less hesitant, at describing what I mean, what I want, what I need, to keep this legacy in motion. I treasure every time a friend shares some feedback with me, a phrase, a question, an impression, because all of it goes into the soup that keeps turning into this frothy delicious feast we have made over much time, with much faith, much grace and much delight.

Thank you for being with me!