I will begin with a quote from a James Baldwin essay titled, "The Dangerous Road Before Martin Luther King". He concludes his essay: “We will need every ounce of moral stamina we can find. For everything is changing, from our notion of politics to our notion of ourselves, and we are certain, as we begin history's strangest metamorphosis, to undergo the torment of being forced to surrender far more than we ever realized we had accepted.”
Although Baldwin's subject was framed in the struggle of blacks vs. the white power structure, he always managed to step back from the immediate situation and describe it in terms that are universal. This is , for me, is ,the beauty of his work.
I have become , as Mr. Baldwin must have, accustomed to living in a world where the idea that there are “terms that are universal” is viewed with skepticism, if not outright derision. That's okay. Error has consequences, and that's what Baldwin is talking about when he refers to “history's strangest metamorphosis” above; a process we are in the midst of.
Barbed Wire Valentine will be playing two songs at the open mic preceding The Secret Song Club Showcase featuring Late But Ready, Brittany Aquamarine, and Larisa Roberts at The Big Easy in Petaluma. BWV will be playing at 7:10. This is a free show. Hope you can come.
Thanks for reading,
Richard