Hello!
I’m back with a new essay that I didn’t plan to write. This one came about when all the best ideas do—when I wasn’t trying to work.
So much has happened this week. Unfortunately, we’re not allowed to discuss it yet. Just know that things are going well and we’ll have much more to share soon.
Here’s what I have for you:
Some thoughts on Tyler Childers’ best song
We’re taking the show on the road (kind of)
New Music Friday strikes again
Closing thoughts
The Universal Sound
You hear every song for the first time twice: once when it first reaches your ears, and then again when it reaches your heart. Those two listens can happen in the same hour or years apart, but the feeling is always the same.
Lately, I’ve been taking a few moments each morning before my son wakes up to lean out the back door and sip my morning coffee before the world wakes up and the masses shuffle off to their offices. I’ve never been much for silence, so I tend to listen to music, and this week, I’ve found a great deal of comfort in Tyler Childers’ song “Universal Sound.”
My mind has been going a mile a minute for weeks, maybe months at this point. Between work, family, and the constant calamity of a world on fire glowing back at me from my devices, it’s enough to make anyone feel a little insane. I often question whether or not I know anything at all. Even worse, I wonder if I’ll ever feel good enough.
As a guy who’s had his day made and broken by an algorithm deciding to “like” him more times than he cares to admit, I am certainly guilty of losing the plot of life in the clutter of stuff that doesn’t really matter. There are days when I find myself spending time with my family while feeling upset that I didn’t do more work. Whether or not I needed to do more doesn’t really factor in. Decades of working within traditional company structures have made me feel obliged to devote eight hours to work per day, regardless of its value. I can’t possibly be efficient enough to also afford time with my family. I must be doing something wrong! It’s enough to make you feel insane.
But no matter how many times my wife calms me down or I find a way to talk myself off the ledge, another needless crisis always arises. The tension of these moments builds and builds until I feel so disconnected from everything that I don’t even know where to begin to rebuild my peace of mind. Those first sips of coffee, coupled with the music on my headphones, are the closest to a reset I know.
On “Universal Sound,” which hails from 2017’s fantastic Purgatory, Childers touches on the search for meaning and truth through music. He describes feeling out of place and yearning for something more profound and binding.
Up in Pocahontas, near the Cranberry Glades Ain't got bars, nor the charge to call her anyway My mind's a mile a minute, and my thoughts they bark like hounds I focus on my breathing and the universal sound
A few years ago, on a whim, I visited a local tattoo shop during “walk-in Wednesday” and requested a Ram Dass quote be added to my upper arm. I had spent the previous year reading and re-reading Be Here Now to the point that my personal copy had to be replaced. I didn’t understand it all, but I knew enough to appreciate its impact on my life.
“Say it until you can hear it,” my tattoo reads. The idea is that by repeatedly affirming a spiritual truth or mantra, you aren't just speaking to convince or remind yourself intellectually; rather, you are embedding this truth deeply into your consciousness. The act of saying something repeatedly helps to focus the mind, reduce distractions, and deepen understanding. Eventually, the repeated phrase transcends mere words and becomes a felt experience or realization.
I focus on my breathing and the universal sound I let it take me over from the toenails to the crown Of the body that I'm in 'til they put me in the ground And I return to the chorus of the universal sound
I've been up on the mountain, and I've seen His wondrous grace I've sat there on a bar stool, and I've looked Him in the face He seemed a little haggard, but it did not slow Him down He was humming to the neon of the universal sound
Childers’ search for an explanation for the chaos is a universal one, but there’s something deeper at play as well. Ram Dass uses the metaphor of "spacesuits" to talk about the various roles, identities, and social masks we all wear in our day-to-day lives. He likens these to a spacesuit that astronauts wear in space — necessary for survival and designed specifically for the environment. In our case, these suits are made up of our bodies, the social roles we play, our professions, and other identity markers. These define how we interact with the world around us and how others see us.
Ram Dass argues that if we can look through the masks and see the beings inside our spacesuits, we can realize our similarities and gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. The same thing happens with the noise of existence. Be it the never-ending crisis at work, the tension of a home filled with big dreams and modest pockets, or the darkness of the world at large, it's easy to lose heart and fear the worst for all things. We get so caught up in the nonsense of life, and in doing so, drift further away from the things that matter most until we lose our true selves entirely.
When it all becomes too much, and I feel like I’m coming apart at the seams, I look at my tattoo and ask myself the same two questions:
Where am I? Here. When is it? Now.
I’ll ask myself as long as it takes to accept the things I cannot control and return to the present. If it’s the only thing I do that day, being present gives me a greater sense of peace than any number of to-do list checkmarks can replicate.
And maybe it’s just a metaphor to some, the whole ‘universal sound’ thing, but I believe it is a real and tangible thing. I hear it in the quiet of those mornings when all I have are my thoughts and my coffee. I feel it when I hold my wife and son each day. The vibrations of being that give meaning to the breaths we take. The Earth is humming, and it’s a beautiful song.
Country Minute is coming to a city near you (as long as it’s these two cities)
We are headed to Nashville and Indianapolis this coming weekend, May 3-4, for two nights of music and content creation. Our first stop is Nissan Stadium for Morgan Wallen’s One Night At a Time Tour (yes, again), and the next night we’re back at Lucas Oil Stadium for the start of George Strait’s 2024 summer tour. We’ll be creating videos in and outside the shows, as well as around the cities. If you see us—say hello! We have free Country Minute gifts for anyone who appears in a video.
It’s New Music Friday (subscribe to the playlist)
Closing thoughts
Taking life by the reigns is harder than you think, but so far, it’s worth it. Here’s a quote from Henry David Thoreau that has been getting me through the week:
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”