I’m tired of conflict. I’m tired of hate spewing voices and aggressive acts of mindless violence, discrimination and lack of compassion. So — I’m gonna pick up my guitar and play, just like yesterday. Thanks Pete!

It should be of no surprise, but let me point it out anyway, that the only communal human activity in which it is impossible to interact negatively is in musical performance. Now, let me clarify that statement before some of you start to point out what you think is wrong with my statement. By performing I mean the people/artists actually playing the music via instrument or voice. They are the ones that I specifically recognize as unable to be at odds with the other performers on stage. Impossible. The listening audience may be moshing around and tearing at the seat cushions, but the performers are in sync and are harmonious in their actions.

Think about it. Have you ever witnessed a band, string quartet, percussion ensemble or kazoo octet not getting along as they played their music? Acting and dancing may come in a close second, but it is not he same – there is no sustained byproduct like the vibrations that fill the air from a musical performance. Conflict may arise from a musical performance but it occurs before or after the music is being made or when something or someone disrupts the performance. The music stops, people address the issue, but while the music plays, there is no conflict between them.

When I go to concerts the musicians are usually smiling. Sometimes they may have a stern face because they are concentrating in order to listen and interact. But there is no prejudice, no animosity, no hatred while the music plays. Even if the musician is performing solo there is an inner peace that allows the music to flow out of them. It’s like  the act of creating music dissolves all hostility and soothes the savage breast.

But what about music that has a message? Music that inspires men to go off to war? Music that inspires love? Well that’ something entirely different from what I’m talking about. Performers have no real control over how the listener interprets the sounds. My focus is the performer. The pure artist that engages in music for the sake of creation. And I say that in that creation there can exist no conflict and no hate. As the Sex Pistols played ‘Anarchy in the UK’, the audience may have been bloody, but the boys in the band were in harmony and not in conflict. Until they stopped the music.

OK, so we have to be playing music constantly in order to stay out of trouble. No. But, as in meditation it’s what we carry away from the practice that sustains our ability to be present. So perhaps through consistent performance of music we can carry away feelings of compassion and empathy. Just a thought.

I’m in the middle of budget cuts once again. The school system in which I teach has been cutting away and we all know what gets trimmed: music, art and home economics. It would seem to me that these should be the last subjects to cut. Home Ec teaches us how to eat. Art teaches us appreciation of life, beauty and creation. And music teaches us how to get along – communal non-aggression. That seems like a recipe for the survival of our species if I ever heard one: eating, creation and co-existence. But the people with their hands on the purse strings say otherwise and choose to diminish the role of the arts in our lives. Sounds like a conspiracy to keep us angry, hungry and silent.

Well it seems my only response is to play my guitar like I did yesterday, will today and plan to do tomorrow and then get on my knees and pray I won’t get fooled again.