Do What Helps Others
On my way to the US to meet a close person in my life. I’ve had this planned prior to beginning this project and finally seeing it through. It is labelled as a risk and concern from impeding the project to finish on time. But the thing is, if we don’t plan or schedule anything, it doesn’t happen. So here I am on the plane to Memphis making it happen.
Albert has been on this driving tour of the entire United States since April and been doing it solo. He’s ‘making it happen’ in his own right. If he says he going to do something, he does it. When I asked him why, he says it’s a bucket list thing. I like that. No overthinking, little bit of planning, but overall just doing it. This guy will have no regrets when he leaves this planet.
This is a good life lesson for me, and how I should be living life as well. This lesson became even more real for me when I received some bad news yesterday about a friend passing away. I can’t share details about it but deeply saddened by such a sudden loss. It is indeed painful to experience loss in our lives. And unfortunately it will come many times in our lives. It can’t be avoided. It must be faced head on and accepted as a reality. It’s important that we recognize and learn from this. The positive nugget or perception this lesson affords to us, who are still alive, is that we must live a life of purpose. Do what we are passionate about, not just what we are good at and what makes us money. Do what helps others.
In Memphis we visited the Civil Rights Museum, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited to support striking sanitation workers. Dr. King believed that all labour had dignity and was deeply committed to workers’ rights. These beliefs coincided with his humanitarian leadership in the civil rights movement from 1954 until his death in 1968. As it is written and internal to most, Dr. King was best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience. The pictures I share is the place of his last spoken words, where he was assassinated at the Lorraine Hotel on April 4, 1968. Dr. King’s life was filled with purpose and propelled a historical humanitarian movement. Truly inspiring. I’m glad to have experienced this monument.
I’m thankful for this blog. It allows me to release my thoughts and to some degree liberates me from emotional weight that life presents. Even though I’m not working on the guitar, I’m finding that my role on the project goes beyond my luthier responsibilities. I feel like I’m developing a social responsibility to the community. To help others in a pragmatic way to discover their talent, develop as a strength, foster it into meaningful work, and create a legacy.
It’s weird how, in the moment, to me the blog has become more important as a vehicle to progressing the project’s vision in comparison to the guitar build or documentary filming. The blog was only supposed to supplement the documentary and to keep Noel and I accountable. It’s exciting to recognize how things can transform in the most positive and natural way.
-- Cliff
