Wednesday, March 31, 2010

A friend told me to stop being so positive...I forgot to listen.

If you take the time to glance into the eyes of a passerby…within seconds your imagination is convinced it has them figured out. We’ve become incredibly addicted to assumption without facing the fears of being wrong.



American Idol contestant Siobhan Magnus is a great example—Usher wasted no time saying, “One look at you and I would’ve never thought you had a voice like that.”



A Top 50 market radio station program director told me he couldn’t bring me on based solely on my look—I lacked what a New Rock on-air talent carries with them. Guess I picked a bad day to get a haircut. The majority of my career has been covered by extremely long colorized hair like Ozzy and shaped imperfectly like I just crawled off a tour bus headed toward Unknown USA.



What feeds our rivers of assumption? Should we start wearing T-shirts that read, “Ask before you assume.”



My last five interns look nothing like their personalities. Yet everyone of them have landed a performance inside the four walls that make up our two speaker stage. There’s a trick to it…totally swiped it from author and spiritualist Eckhart Tolle: You cannot enjoy until you accept.



Accepting means: For now this is my current moment. It requires me to do and in that process I must be willing. Anyone who knows me has been introduced to the door that’s always been open—your vocals and loyalty can stink like a pig farmers backyard but somewhere during those required 400 hours of performance I’m going to locate what makes that imagination tick.



Nobody enjoys cleaning out their gutters or having to spring clean the house! How can we accept the day if what is being performed has nothing to do with enjoyment? This is where people leap off the path of peace and do everything humanly possible to seek other means of gaining access to something worth accepting. Which is my way of saying, we sell out to find fun.



I can’t stand cleaning my gutters yet I won’t buy a system that’ll keep leaves and other things from clogging up the drains. My house sits over a hill staring into the soul of a forest blessed with owls, deer, a beaver, plenty of snakes and black squirrels. When I’m on top of that house with my left hand wrapped around that garden hose I can’t stop telling myself to jump.



What must it be like to be as free as the wind? At 15…I would’ve grabbed the tiller out of the garage, ruffed up the dirt below and made my way toward the answer. Since my view of the world is no longer persuaded by a New Rock image with guts the size Mount Mitchell…everything assumed becomes my answer.



Eckhart Tolle explains, “Finding peace is locating a subtle energy—a vibration that flows through you. On the surface, what we accept during our everyday adventures is nothing more than a passive state.”



Beneath the hairs you tend to pluck or shave off is a forever working machine that takes what you accept and turns it into an extremely active form of creative flow. By taking your hands and creating something you in essence are surrendering an action—which is Tolle’s way of saying you’ve accepted it.



Warning: If you can’t locate enjoyment and or acceptance on the paths you travel…stop.



Going through the motions is nothing more than not taking responsibility. How many people have earned those evil comments from your soul while pointing those aging fingers directly into their unaware faces?



In September of 09 I challenged myself to locate an answer: Before a song hits the radio or VH-1’s Top 20 Countdown…where does it come from? Laughingly I called the project My Blonde Rock n Roll Roots are Beginning to Show. I assumed being nose to nose with a microphone in a shut off from the world recording studio would be the coolest hangout since the invention of IM’s and Text Messaging.



We all sing…we were born to perform. We all write…it’s silenced at the first sign of judgment. Taking those words and putting them to music was the game—standing alone in the studio last night missing drum beats and lyrics began the journey down the mountain. Becoming raspy half way through the night forced the un-tuning of a fork which made the steak you assumed was unforgettably great worthless because you can’t cut into meat with a spoon.



Because I’ve lived it…Bono and U2 are looked upon differently. I’ve learned to study vocal paths swiftly hidden by avenues of artistry displayed by Picasso and Peter Max who’ve found tremendous strength taking your eye off mistakes and putting it on something totally unique a half of canvas away. What is seen and not heard in a music recording studio doesn’t always paint the portrait of the true trail traveled.



Accepting means: For now, this is my situation and I am willing.



And in that thought I ask you…what are you willing but refuse to make part of your situation? The longer you wait the harder it is for you to convince yourself to jump.



Steal my art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

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