Can We Still Have Adventures?
I often wonder what life was like as a traveling minstriel during Elizabethan time.
How difficult it must have been to travel from town to town, to seek patronage from lords of the house.
As a 21st century musician, I can’t picture traveling without the perks of GPS, a cell phone, IndieontheMove.com, Twitter, Youtube, a car, a website, a Priceline App, airplane flights…
Whenever touring gets difficult, I just remind myself, “At least you aren’t having an adventure like an Elizabethan minstrel!”
Yesterday, I was listening to Stateside on Michigan Radio, and Cynthia Canty was interviewing Tom Baily, director of the Little Traverse Conservancy. Baily used the word “adventure” many times during his discussion of why conservation of wilderness in important to us, for kids to have a place to “have an adventure…”
His use of the word “adventure” made me chuckle. Can we still claim to have “adventures” in the modern age?
The word “adventure” seems like an outdated term:
Ad·ven·ture:
(n.) an unusual or exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.
(v.) to engage in hazardous and exciting activity, especially the exploration of unknown territory.
And then it hit me–music and art are their own abstract wildernesses in which we still have adventures.
It is exciting to create. It can be emotionally hazardous to share one’s work, letting the world observe, consider, judge or criticize. The act of creation explores “unknown territory,” usually within our minds or hearts.
When we grow up, we often lose the spirit for adventure. Could being an artist or musician be one of the last ways to keep that spirit alive?
If so, than conserving our arts and music programs in our schools in communities is important, just like conserving the beautiful, scenic character of Michigan .
Grandpa Burg, still having adventures at 90 years old!
One of the most scary adventures I've had touring was when a five hour gig commute became a white-knuckling nine hours because of a winter storm on the 402 in Ontario. It was an adventure getting to Paul Federici's CD Release show!
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