Music was important before.

I don't know whether it can be again.

Music was part of a me that might not exist anymore.

I don't know if it's possible to reclaim either.

Here’s why:

Our identities are not fixed. We construct ourselves out of multiple competing narratives. Who we are is tied to who we were and who we want to be. These selves are in constant negotiations with each other and rely on complex webs of filiations and affiliations to sustain, maintain and progress themselves.

We reach back into the past and look forward into the future to define ourselves in the now.

We're never fixed.

We're always in flux.

We're always changing.

If our sustaining links are cut, if we’re isolated from our networks, we are cast adrift from ourselves.

With the home port of the past denied us and no safe harbour in our future; with the compasses that guide us smashed and the anchors to hold us gone, we become ghost ships, alone on the hostile sea.

Without fixed stars to sail by and safe anchorage, we are prey for pirates.

I don't know if it's possible to reclaim and rebuild who or what I was.

But not to try is to admit defeat.

©℗ A. I. Jackson

——-

The first Origin(al) Stories Journal was a blog launched to track the writing and recording of the Northumbria album. You can read about the thought processes behind that here.

Following the launch of The Landing Stage website, I’ve decided to continue with the Origin(al) Stories posts.

The Landing Stage showcases some of the things I do.

The Origin(al) Stories posts show some of the thoughts and processes and activities that go into those acts of doing.

Drawn from my personal diaries and journals, the posts might often seem unconnected, elliptical and fragmentary.

This is because the Origin(al) Stories blog doesn’t offer the definitive conclusions, hacks, lists or ‘how to …’ advice beloved of Youtube gurus, bro-science and self-help manuals.

This is because there’s no one road through the forest, no one route to the top of the mountain, no one path to where you want to be and what you want to do.

The Origin(al) stories only shows how I’ve found a path through to doing something.

The path always has to give you as much as the destination.

They are, as I noted in the original post about it, postcards from the journey. Snapshots of work in progress - which is what all lives and endeavours are.

If you’ve liked an Origin(al) Stories post, or it’s helped you with something you’re doing in some way, please share it to your socials, and give credit. All content on this website is copyrighted and attributable.

If you’d like to listen to Northumbria, download it here.

If you’d like to listen to Alnwyck Jameson Badger, download it here.

If you’d like to listen to Broken Oars Podcast, download it here.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day. Tell the people you love that you love them. Be a positive force.