Deciding at the crossroads
There are times in a person’s life when he or she arrives at a crossroads and needs to make a decision about which path to take. The next part of the journey might lead this traveller far away from people with whom he or she shared close encounters and experiences from earlier days.
What is the journey for? This depends on the things that matter most to the person in question, banal as that idea may seem. It’s a remarkable feeling to know that one can draw from a deep reservoir of experience, yet there is still a great deal that needs to be learnt.
But the moment of making a decision at the crossroads can be demanding emotionally. One of the great things about You Tube and other similar search engines is the way it makes nostalgic reflection possible.
Last night, I spent some time listening to recordings of indie rock and new wave bands from the 1980s and 1990s. This took me to a pleasurable space where I could remember some of the times spent with close wayfarers of my youth. Then I listened to some artistes who were market leaders in those heady days when the “World Music” genre seemed to be the way forward for some music business operatives.
Finally, I found myself listening to classic disco of the late 1970s. There were sublime moments of quality in all the sounds I listened to, but I realised that they were simply trendy soundtracks of their eras. There is indeed such a thing as creating timeless pieces of work. Perhaps deciding to travel on that path is potentially more worthwhile than going with other options.
