musical verano pt. 3
Today by Dave Koz and Cory Wong
“Utopia is on the horizon. When I walk two steps, it takes two steps back. I walk ten steps and it is ten steps further away. What is utopia for? It is for this, for walking.” - Eduardo Galeano
Here we are then, Today. Walking in the curious confluence of yesterday and tomorrow, inheritance and legacy. Today is history, and tomorrow too.
One year ago today, I began writing of a world where all are home. Of that place “where we know and where we are known, where we love and are beloved,” as Shoshana Zuboff described in her indispensable work, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. Thank you for joining me on this creative journey.
A wise man once lamented: “it’s a mad world that made me crazy.” Likewise, I’d be lost without the hope we create here together. The recent Pride and Determination celebration, held on the banks of the Clark Fork River, reminded me even on the darkest days, there is music and joy in the struggle for a just, dignified world.
“Hey, one of these days we’ll all get by, don’t be afraid, don’t fall in line.”
Happy Pride loved ones. Onward!
Part III: Today by Dave Koz and Cory Wong
Without words, I could not dream of writing to you. Yet, sometimes, if not often, the most powerful messages are communicated without a single word. A friendly nod or a warm embrace to show and reciprocate love. The soothing nature of flowing water and wisping trees humble to Earth’s majesty. Surreal colors layered on canvas illume the quandaries and possibilities of life in ways words fall short. But today, I’m writing of a glorious soprano saxophone and its revolutionarily common journey.
Yesterday, a heavy summer rain met this part of earth’s surface and tomorrow the ground may be greener. Today, a bird dances in a gentle breeze. Palms wisp, tickling clear blue skies as waves and runoff blend together. Also today, wildfires roar in Canada, smoking air of the continent to unnatural, deadly levels. Both reflect our connection to all life on earth and the mutual responsibilities this creates, whether acknowledged or not. How is it that a soprano sax, played here by Dave Koz, can express so purely the intricacies of this delicate, though resilient, balance of life?
Today comes alive with the steady pulse of guitar, played by Cory Wong, bass, and drums. The wayfaring sax soon awakens. Its sweet sound fluttering up and down as a tight brass ensemble echoes the balanced, ebb-flow melody. Little will stop this symphony of hope and action. It blooms with curiosity, gratitude, and growth. Not capital growth, but real growth. Kinship and common purpose live in every note—from the grassroots up, and back ‘round again. Labor creates all wealth, after all. So, how could it be that a mere handful of bankers and barons control it today?
Today, “we are living through a material and ideological crisis” because, as Amna A. Akbar writes, “people’s basic needs are not being met—not by the state, and not by the market… Ordinary people have no way to determine the conditions of their lives.”
Amid these cascading crises, revolution rings. In strikes, walkouts, and teach-ins; organizing, canvassing, and mutual aid, a growing chorus joins to sing another world is possible. A world beyond the many toiling, mostly for the enrichment of an idle, careless few. Toward more generative Democracies. That is, toward constellations of transparent, locally accountable bodies fulfilling real-life needs: clean air and water; food, housing, and medicine; dignity, connection, and creativity.1
The mountaintop may represent the pinnacle, but the process of getting there is the point. “Paradise is not the place in which you arrive but the journey toward it,” Rebecca Solnit writes in her classic work Hope in the Dark.
Our means are our ends. And I hear this parable Today as the ensemble crescendos, finding its summit. Atop, there is an instant of triumph and a moment of respite before looping back to where we began. The lessons of our travels become wisdom to share and build on. Perhaps this progression suggests we’re on a road to nowhere. But on that road we make hope, and so we make home, and then we are somewhere.
Indeed, we’re always somewhere. Shouldn’t we decide where? Shouldn’t we all be safe there? What if, as Garrett Buck posed recently, instead of a spectacle in cruelty and greed, “politics was the act of paying attention to which of your neighbors were under attack and figuring out how to make them feel less alone? What if it was about identifying the parts of your life where you’re most vulnerable and asking for help?”
Empowered with this revolutionary spirit, working people throughout the world—garment, factory, farm and delivery workers, teachers and students, writers, artists, cooks, cashiers and cleaners, careworkers and water protectors, ranchers and railroaders—all join together, singing songs of solidarity now and forever.
Art is perhaps the most powerful means through which we see each other, build solidarity, and transform the world. I feel these new worlds coming alive in community with song and dance, story and poem, love and celebration. Soulful worlds of meaning we create. Sometimes, I’m so moved by the power of these worlds, all I can do is cry. Then, on occasion, I gather the words and write to you.
With love, as always.
Listen to the full album, Golden Hour, on Spotify here. It’s… pure gold.
I suppose that concludes “Volume I” of blue world, if you’d feel so generous as to call it that. Revisit the full Archive here. Every essay is filled with links and notes to more resources. I’d love to hear from you. Please write me in the comments or directly at hey.blueworld@gmail.com with any thoughts, reflections, or responses that emerge.
This essay is Part III of the musical verano series, in which I reflect on life through the music that moves me to laugh, think, dance, and cry. Read the first two parts here:
pt. 1: Señores Ladrones by Tomasito (8/29/22)
pt. 2: What Do You Want by Desperate Electric (9/8/22)
The blue world tunes playlist on Spotify continues to grow. Thank you for your contributions. Check it out if you haven’t and make an addition if you wish!
Finally, a very special thank you to my friend Madeleine Brink for her invaluable help with each of these essays. blue world would not be what it is without her.
See Dean Spade, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next), (2020).
beautiful earth imagery!! happy birthday blueworld!!
Your writing once again makes me ponder, smile, cry, feel. I want to sit in a room enrobed by the thoughts and music you describe. Thank you!